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Donald Sultan‘s limited edition prints exemplify his mastery of form and material, marking a significant contribution to the discourse on contemporary abstraction and still life. Each print, available for sale, distills his innovative use of industrial materials and bold simplicity.
Donald Sultan, born in 1951 in Asheville, North Carolina, is a prominent figure in contemporary art, celebrated for his innovative contributions to painting and printmaking. Sultan’s artwork, characterized by its bold simplicity, monumental scale, and use of industrial materials, challenges traditional boundaries between these mediums, redefining notions of modern still life and landscape. Educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and subsequently at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sultan moved to New York in the late 1970s, where he quickly became part of the vibrant art scene. The painter’s early artworks in the 1980s gained recognition for their distinctive approach to still life subjects, often depicted through large-scale compositions of fruits, flowers, and industrial elements, rendered in rich, tactile materials like tar, enamel, and spackle on tile over masonite panels. This choice of materials and subject matter infused his artwork with a stark, compelling presence, merging industrial grit with organic beauty. Donald Sultan’s art is not easily classified; it occupies a unique space between abstraction and realism, painting and sculpture. His subjects, while recognizable, are abstracted into elemental forms and colors, stripped down to their essence against a stark, often monochromatic background. This simplification, combined with the physicality of his materials, gives Sultan’s paintings and fine art prints their power and immediacy. Throughout his career, Donald Sultan has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally, with his artworks held in prestigious collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Tate Modern in London.
Auction record: $400k, Sotheby’s, 1990