DONALD SULTAN

BORN: 1951, Asheville, NC

EDUCATION & HONORS:

1973       BFA, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
1975       MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1978       Creative Artists Public Service Grant, New York, NY
1980       State National Endowment for the Arts
2000       “Doctor of Arts,” Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C.

OVERVIEW:

Born in 1951 in Asheville, North Carolina, Donald Sultan received his BFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He moved to New York in 1975. The work of Donald Sultan is voluminous and varied. Since his first one-man show in 1977, he has enjoyed a distinguished career as painter, printmaker, and sculptor. His extensive body of work has placed him at the forefront of contemporary art, where he has become best known for his ability to successfully merge the best of yesterday’s artistic tradition with a fresh, modern approach that is unique.

Although his paintings fit into the criteria of a still life, Sultan describes these works as first and foremost abstract. The largeness of Sultan’s compositions, huge pieces of fruit, flowers, dominoes and other objects, set against the stark, unsettling tar-black, eight-foot square background, dominate the viewer. He is best known for his lemons and fruit, and states that his subjects develop from previous work. What does not change with Sultan’s work is the powerful statement his forms make. Sultan’s work incorporates basic geometric and organic forms with a formal purity that is both subtle and monumental. His images are weighty, with equal emphasis on both negative and positive areas. Sultan describes his work as “heavy structure, holding fragile meaning” with the ability to “turn you off and turn you on at the same time.” Sultan’s still lifes have been described as studies in contrast. His powerfully sensual, fleshy object representations are rendered through a labor-intensive and unique method.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2004 Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland

2003 Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland

1998 Donald Sultan and the Still Life Tradition, Corcoran Gallery Washington, DC

1997 Donald Sultan: New Paintings, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

1996 Donald Sultan: Neue Arbeiten, Galerie Lawrence Rubin (catalogue) Zurich, Switzerland

Thinking Print - Books to Billboards 1980-95, Museum of Modern Art New York, NY

1995 Recent Acquisitions on Paper, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Inst. Washington, DC

Donald Sultan: New Paintings, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

1994 Metamorphosis: Surrealism to Organic Abstraction, Marlborough Graphics New York,

Donald Sultan: Wall Flowers, Paul Kasmin Gallery New York, NY

1993 Wege der Moderne: Di Sammlung Beyeler, National Galerie Berlin, Germany

Donald Sultan, Galerie Kaj Forsblom Zurich, Switzerland

Donald Sultan: Morning Glories, Hill Gallery Birmingham, MI

Donald Sultan: Recent Paintings, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

1992 Donald Sultan: Drawing, The Hill Gallery Birmingham, MI

Donald Sultan: Paintings, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Pintures, Galerie Trauma Barcelona, Spain

Donald Sultan, Hans Strelow Gallery Dusseldorf, Germany

Donald Sultan: Recent Paintings and Works on Paper, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX

Donald Sultan: Paintings 1978-1992, Guild Hall Museum East Hampton, NY

Donald Sultan: Drawings + Watercolors 1987-1992, Knoedler & Company New York,

Donald Sultan: A Print Retrospective, The American Federation of the Arts (traveled) New York, NY

1991 Donald Sultan: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, John Berggruen Gallery San Francisco, CA

Donald Sultan: Sculpture, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

Donald Sultan, Recent Print Projects: Dominoes, Fruits and Flowers, Playing Cards,
Mary Ryan Gallery New York, NY

1990 Donald Sultan: Paintings, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Screenprints and Etchings, Greg Kucera Gallery Seattle, WA

Donald Sultan, Equinox Gallery Vancouver, Canada

Donald Sultan, Waddington Galleries London, England

Summer Exhibit, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

1989 Waldo Crommelynck Master Prints with American Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art -
Equitable Center New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Sculpture, Blum Helman Gallery Santa Monica, CA

Donald Sultan: Playing Cards Drawings, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Inc. New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Works on Paper, Runkle-Hue Williams, Ltd. London, England

Donald Sultan: New Sculpture, The Greenberg Gallery St. Louis, MO

Donald Sultan: Drawings, Knoedler & Company New York, NY

Donald Sultan: A Selection of Prints, Richard Green Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Drawing - Painting, Meredith Long Gallery Houston, TX

Donald Sultan: Dominoes, Playing Cards, Fruits and Flowers, Greg Kucera Gallery Seattle, WA

Donald Sultan, Richard Green Gallery Santa Monica, CA

1988 Donald Sultan: Black Lemons, Museum of Modern Art New York, NY

Donald Sultan, Galerie Montenay Paris, France

Donald Sultan, La Galerie Alice Pauli Lausanne, Switzerland

Donald Sultan: Prints and Drawings, Marina Hamilton Gallery New York, NY

Viewpoints: Paintings and Sculpture from the Guggenheim Museum Collection and Major Loans,
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, NY

1987 Donald Sultan: Linoleum Paintings 12 x 12, Akira Ikeda Gallery Nagoya, Japan

Donald Sultan: Cigarette Paintings 1980-1981, Photographs 1985-1986, Blum Helman
Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Recent Paintings, Blum Helman Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Small Paintings, Small Drawings 1978-1987, Barbara Krakow Gallery Boston, MA

Donald Sultan, Museum of Contemporary Art (Traveled) Chicago, IL

Donald Sultan, Gian Enzo Sperone Gallery Seattle, WA

Donald Sultan: Black Lemons - Recent Paintings, Greg Kucera Gallery Seattle, WA

1986 Donald Sultan: Drawings, Blum Helman Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan: A Survey, A.P. Giannini Gallery Bank of America, San Francisco, CA

Donald Sultan, Galerie Montenay-Desol Paris, France

Donald Sultan: Drawings, Blum Helman Gallery Los Angeles, CA

1985 Donald Sultan: New Paintings, Blum Helman Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan: Prints 1979-1985, Barbara Krakow Gallery (traveled) Boston, MA

Donald Sultan, Small Paintings, Blum Helman Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan, Gian Enzo Sperone Rome, Italy

1984 Donald Sultan: New Paintings, Blum Helman Gallery New York, NY

1983 Donald Sultan: Bilder und Zeichnungen, Hans Strelow Gallery Dusseldorf, Germany

Donald Sultan, Akira Ikeda Gallery Tokyo, Japan

1982 Donald Sultan, Blum Helman Gallery New York, NY

1981 Donald Sultan: Recent Paintings, Daniel Weinberg Gallery San Francisco, CA

1980 Donald Sultan, Willard Gallery New York, NY

1979 Donald Sultan, Willard Gallery New York, NY

Donald Sultan, Young Hoffman Gallery Chicago, IL

1977 Artists Space, Artists Space New York, NY

Turning the Room Sideways, The Institute of Art and Urban Resources P.S. 1 Special Projects Room,
Long Island City, NY

1976 N.A.M.E. Gallery, N.A.M.E. Gallery Chicago, IL

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusettes
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock
The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Bank America Corporation
Dallas Musuem of Fine Arts, Texas
David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusettes
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
La Jolla Musuem of Contemporary Art, California
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design of Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Tobataku Kitakyushu, Japan
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, Purchase
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
Smith College, Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri
The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Back to Artist Images