Donald Sultan (USA, born 1951) is a distinguished painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of the New Yorker “New Image” movement. He has a unique artistic method and innovative approach to traditional subject matter. Known as Abstract Representation, Donald Sultan´s art is characterized by the use of geometric black forms set against organic areas of bright color, thus bringing an abstract sensibility to his iconographic images of still life. Throughout his career he has revisited and reinvented still life, using images of lemons, poppies, playing cards, fruits, flowers, and other objects. Donald Sultan’s Lemons, a recurrent theme in his artworks, has, in fact, become an iconic image all over the world. Sultan is considered to be at the forefront of contemporary art. Although his paintings are often classified as landscapes and still life, Sultan states that they are first and foremost abstracts. Besides paintings, drawings, and sculptures, he has created many editions. Donald Sultan’s prints are unique: he uses specific materials like “flocking’s” to create expressive and powerful prints that are reminiscent of his forceful paintings. Since his first solo exhibition in 1977, Sultan’s artistic career has progressed rapidly; his works are part of the most prominent public and private collections to be found across the globe.

Donald Sultan

Donald Sultan’s large-scale still-life paintings feature semi-abstract compositions and unique materials: The artist has used tar, spackle, enamel, Masonite, and vinyl floor tiles to create his minimalist renderings of flowers, fruits, and other natural forms.

Blues and Blacks, May 1, 2008 belongs to Sultan’s famous Flower series. The artist is credited for the revival of the still life tradition where the image is deconstructed to the basic elements, thus Sultan’s work remains both abstract and representational.

Blues and Blacks, May 1, 2008 is a color silkscreen with enamel inks, flocking, and tar-like texture on 4-ply museum board and it represents Sultan's emblematic flowers in blue rendered against the black background. The image reveals one of the key features of Sultan’s work - the material juxtaposition- the contrast of a weighty background with ethereal shapes of the flowers. The printing technique translates the Sultan’s original paintings’ texture: linoleum, tar, flocking, plaster, tile, wood.

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“ My paintings are not really so much about walnuts (or lemons, etc.) as they are about working on the image, making it look like the thing so much that it's abstracted. „

—Donald Sultan