abstracted image with sketchy buildings in rust on black; creamy white with red at front; black clouds in sky, with some blue sky and clouds at center, ULC, and right edge

%C2%A9 Donald Sultan %2F Artists Rights Society %28ARS%29%2C New York

The Shelling of Dubrovnik 1999, August 2004

Color etching and aquatintexpand_more

Gift of Mary and Bob Merskyexpand_more  2019.58.5.3

Not on Viewexpand_more

Donald Sultan’s suite of prints “The Brutal, Unsentimental Landscape” is a pessimistic look at the human condition. Working at the intersection of abstraction and realism, Sultan produced a series of images that are ostensibly landscapes, but are actually personal reflections on war, violence, environmental degradation, and the impermanence of human endeavor. “Man is inherently self-destructive, and whatever is built will be destroyed,” he once said in commenting on the nihilism present in some of his work. Paradoxically, the intaglio prints possess an aesthetic appeal that belies their grim content; Sultan leaves this contradiction unaddressed.

Details
Title
The Shelling of Dubrovnik 1999
Artist Life
born 1951
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2019.58.5.3
Provenance
(Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, sold to Mersky October 2017); Robert B. Mersky, Minneapolis; given to MIA, 2019
Curator Approved

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abstracted image with sketchy buildings in rust on black; creamy white with red at front; black clouds in sky, with some blue sky and clouds at center, ULC, and right edge

© Donald Sultan / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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