Altoon Sultan | McKenzie Fine Art

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. 

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).

SULTAN, Red Bars, 2014   Hand-dyed wool on linen    12 x 10 inches

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.

 

 

SULTAN, #5, 2012   Egg tempera and graphite on hand-toned paper   15 x 15 inches

SULTAN, #31, 2014   Egg tempera and graphite on hand-toned paper   15 x 15 inches

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.

 

SULTAN, Blue Verticals, 2014   Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel    8 1/4  x 6 1/8 inches

SULTAN, Light Fingers, 2014   Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel    6 x 8  inches

SULTAN, Red Hose, 2014   Egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel    6 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches

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. 

Altoon Sultan: Playful Geometry

Blinky Palermo

I am often intrigued by images that are visually spare, although I tend to favor a measure of compositional complexity in many of my own paintings.  The work that captures and holds my interest is generally modest in its making and conveys an essential experience—sometimes meditative, sometimes playful.  Collages by Jean Arp, paintings of Blinky Palermo, or small Tantric paintings are among the gems that come to mind. 

Jean Arp

page from Tantra Song

 

It is in this spirit that I offer some thoughts on the work of Altoon Sultan. In recent years, Sultan has been painting intimately scaled abstractions with images derived from tools and farm implements that she encounters near her home in rural Vermont. These egg tempera on parchment paintings (some as small as 4 x 6") are elegantly composed and often spatially complex. You can see a selection of these paintings by clicking here. 

However, it is in Sultan’s prints and textiles that I find connections to a more minimalist aesthetic, but with a twist.  Working with iconic geometric forms, her circles, squares, and triangles are sometimes presented in symmetrical arrays, while in other works they appear to frolic across an open field. Sultan is also an avid explorer of materials, producing potato prints, cardboard prints, as well as digital prints. Her textiles include hooked wool drawings (which often incorporate egg tempera), as well as what she describes as “ruglets”, small wall hangings made from hand dyed wool hooked on linen backing. Many of the prints have a palette of subdued earth tones, while the textiles are often brightly hued. 

 The Potato Prints generally incorporate simple forms arranged symmetrically on the page and concisely titled with the name of the shapes—no pretensions here. The forms are irregular in both shape and inking, and imbued with a hand-made, humble quality.  To see more recent potato prints by Sultan, click here. 

Sultan, Vertical Three, 11 3/4 x 6 1/4"

Sultan, Four Square, 2012, 12 x 10"

Sultan, Five Circles, Four Squares, 2012
17 3/8 x 15" 

 

Once again, using an everyday material in making the Cardboard Prints, Sultan works with basic geometric forms arrayed in simple patterns. In this series, Sultan’s compositions are simultaneously pared down and rhythmic. The somewhat irregular shapes offer a sense of possibility, without complications. 

Sultan, Green Rounds, 2012, image 10x10"

Sultan, Split Circles, 2012, image 10 x 6 3/4

Sultan, Baby Blue, 2012, 16 1/2 x 28"

Sultan’s Hooked Wool Drawings can be seen as a bridge between her prints and her hooked wool ruglets (below).  Incorporating hand dyed wool as well as egg tempera on linen, these drawings leave much of the field bare, and offer a range of tactile experiences as the forms float and bounce over the ground. 

 

Sultan, 2012 #12, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 14 x 12"

Sultan, 2012 #16, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 14 1/2 x 12"

Sultan, 2012 #17, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 15 x 11 1/4"

Although continuing to explore conversations between simple geometric shapes, Sultan’s Hooked Wool Textiles (which are intended as wall-hangings) take us in a somewhat different direction. The very tactile nature of these pieces would seem to lead us away from the minimalist sensibility of the prints, yet they are first and foremost explorations of figure and ground. The often vibrantly hued textiles are composed of numerous ‘strokes’ of hand dyed hooked wool, which create a rich texture and lush surface activity. 

Sultan, Purple Push, 2009, 10 x 21.5

Sultan, Blue/Yellow Ground, 2012, 11 x 10

Sultan, Objects #4, 2011, 9 x 15

Sultan, Red / Blue Ground, 2011, 11 x 10

Sultan, Empty Center / Blue Brown, 2011, 9 x 9

Sultan, Four pieces from the Figure/Ground series

These textiles are exquisite balancing acts -- placing simple forms in tension with one another and in tension with the edges of the image.  As with the prints, the slight irregularity of the forms allows them to breathe and also brings some levity into the formal conversations.  For me, Sultan's explorations in printmaking and textiles provide an ongoing source of visual delight, as they offer a minimalist sensibility along with a dash of wit.

Sultan is quite prolific and the images pictured here provide only a small sampling of her work.
You can see more of Sultan’s prints by clicking here and more of her textiles by clicking here.  You can also search her blog for additional images from these series.