%C2%A9 Donald Sultan %2F Artists Rights Society %28ARS%29%2C New York
Oil Field, September 2004
Color etching and aquatint in yellow and blackexpand_more
Gift of Mary and Bob Merskyexpand_more 2019.58.5.4
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
- Oil Field
- Artist Life
- born 1951
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 2019.58.5.4
- 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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© Donald Sultan / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York