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.

Donald Sultan’s large-scale still life paintings are filled with rich iconography that merges from provocative objects, like bulbous fruits and flowers, set against a either stark, unsettling black or white backgrounds. Although primarily classified as a still lifes, Sultan maintains that his works are first and foremost abstract.

Sultan's work incorporates basic geometric and organic forms, familiar images, with a formal purity that is both subtle and monumental, reducing them to their most generic schematization. This color screenprint with enamel inks and-tar-like texture on 2-ply museum board representing the ephemeral shape of flowers gracefully combined manifests the synthesis of the natural and abstract typical to Sultan´s work.

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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