Donald Sultan

Donald Sultan – Art study with support from his parents; the search for new approaches

Donald K Sultan was born in Asheville in the US state of North Carolina on 5 May 1951. He grew up in a home with an interest in art: His father’s main profession was as a tyre manufacturer, but pursued abstract painting in his spare time, whilst his mother was particularly interested in the theater and took her son to various productions from an early age. This gave Donald an introduction to a fascinating world in which he strove to prove himself with the express understanding of his parents. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina in 1973 before moving to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, leaving two years later with a Master of Fine Arts. During this period, Sultan developed a growing unease with established painting methods and soon experimented with new approaches and techniques, which finally led to the use of industrial materials.

Breakthrough in the 1980s; teaching appointments and awards

Like many of his colleagues, Donald Sultan went to New York after graduating to establish himself as an independent artist. The first years proved difficult; he worked as a handyman to earn money and was only able to pursue his true profession late at night. A scholarship from the New York State Council of the Arts in 1979 enabled him to finally focus on his artistic activity - Sultan took this chance and made himself a talking point in numerous group and solo exhibitions. In the 1980s, in particular, Sultan celebrated immense success with critics and the public; his works could be admired in the greatest galleries in the country, at times selling for six-figure sums. By then, he was an established name and big player and took on teaching contracts at renowned universities such as the famous Harvard University in Cambridge. Donald Sultan also received a great number of prizes and honours, including three honorary doctorates and a coveted Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Renunciation of traditional painting materials; large format tar pictures

Donald Sultan was one of the first artists to forgo traditional painting tools such as the brush and instead to use industrial materials such as tar and tiles. The use of tar was a familiar inheritance from his childhood, having become acquainted with this material in his father’s tyre business. Entirely atypical for the artistic mainstream of his time, Donald Sultan also dedicated himself to the classical representations of still lifes and flowers. What attracted the artist in particular to the flower motif was its close interconnection with the developmental stages of human life: Formulations such as the blossoming of youth inspired symbol-laden depictions of birth, vitality and beauty, but also transience and death. Sultan thus moves constantly between the poles of representational and abstract art, who simply did not want to accept those often-postulated opposites. His large-format pictures in a consciously reduced style with powerful contrasts are reminiscent not least of the iconic Pop Art series Flowers by Andy Warhol, but have also developed a high degree of independence.