After following Sultan’s work for several
years via her blog and FB, I was delighted to see the exhibition at McKenzie Fine Art in New York (up through November 16).
I first wrote about Sultan’s work two years ago
here, highlighting her prints (potato
and cardboard) and textiles (hooked wool drawings and textiles), which demonstrated
her facility working with simple forms and at times pedestrian materials to produce
bold and playful images.
Sultan is an artist whose work
cannot be neatly categorized, whether one considers her imagery or the medium. Rather than confining herself to one primary
direction, she pursues several parallel bodies of work. What they all share is her
pursuit of elegant geometry, subtle use of color, as well as her expertise and delight in the process of making.
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| SULTAN, Curves and Square, 2013 Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel 6 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches |
This show, which includes nearly
thirty pieces, offers quite an array of work by this versatile artist –
intimate paintings executed in egg tempera, drawings on hand-toned paper, and
hooked wool wall textiles. Although
linked by her attention to balancing form and color, each medium offers Sultan a
different expressive vocabulary. It is also clear that for Sultan,
preparing the materials is an engaging and meaningful part of her practice. The egg tempera
paintings are executed on calfskin parchment stretched over wood panels; she hand dyes
the wool for the textiles, and hand-tones the paper for her drawings.
The hooked wool textiles are the most reductive and visually striking
of all Sultan’s works. While the geometric
forms are bold, the hooking process yields a rich surface texture comprised of
numerous small strokes, gently undermining the minimalist sensibility of the compositions. Additionally,
the size of each ‘stitch’ is such that the forms are often imperfect, with
irregular edges. Although Sultan sometimes dips into illusionist space in this body of work, most of the textiles are strong figure/ground compositions. So while
many of her textiles give a hat tip to Russian constructivism, those formal inclinations are balanced with a bit of whimsy. (It is unfortunate that only five of Sultan's textiles are included in the exhibit, not giving them the presence they deserve).
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| SULTAN, Red Bars, 2014 Hand-dyed wool on linen 12 x 10 inches |
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| SULTAN, Blue Arc, 2014 Hand-dyed wool on linen 25 3/4 x 12 inches |
The drawings (egg
tempera and graphite) on hand-toned paper
seem to reflect another aspect of Sultan’s aesthetic—and I find viewing
them to be somewhat spiritual, not unlike the meditative effect of
Tantric drawings. In various interviews,
Sultan mentions that this body of work was prompted by time spent at the
Islamic wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sultan tones the papers in hues ranging from subdued to
saturated, and each sheet is rich with the irregularities of the dying process. Along with the overlay of painted forms, the
networks of intersecting circles (drawn in graphite) remain
quietly visible, hinting at the many possible directions
inherent in each piece. These drawings have an air of mystery and merit
slow looking.
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| SULTAN, #5, 2012 Egg tempera and graphite on hand-toned paper 15 x 15 inches |
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| SULTAN, #31, 2014 Egg tempera and graphite on hand-toned paper 15 x 15 inches |
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| SULTAN, #9, 2014 Egg tempera and graphite on hand-toned paper 15 x 15 inches |
Sultan’s very intimate paintings (several as small as 6 x 8") are derived from her photographs
of farm machinery, and focus on the geometry of the
forms. By zooming in and closely
cropping her images, she
essentially rules out a consideration of subject matter. Rather, Sultan
concentrates on capturing light and shadows, and juxtaposing small
elements of these machine-made implements against one another, all in
service to the composition. Yes, there
is light and shadow -- pointing to depth and illusion, yet these are not
depictions of objects. The irregular silhouettes of the shadows add a bit of surprise and spatial ambiguity to the compositions. Elements of the man-made world have been
distilled and transformed into elegant, carefully balanced abstractions.
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| SULTAN, Blue Verticals, 2014 Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel 8 1/4 x 6 1/8 inches |
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| SULTAN, Light Fingers, 2014 Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel 6 x 8 inches |
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| SULTAN, Red Hose, 2014 Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel 6 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches |
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| SULTAN, Linked, 2014 Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel 5 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches |
Click here to read a 2013 interview with Sultan, conducted by Jeff Hogue on Figure/Ground.
