Donald Sultan "Wallflowers"
RYAN LEE
This event has ended.
Mary Ryan Gallery presents Wallflowers, an exhibition of new work by Donald Sultan. Wallflowers features 36 gouache on paper drawings (approximately 15 x 12 inches), each of a different kind of flower, in varying colors and compositions, set against a white background. They are bold and delicate, "gestural, varied, unattached, and erratic." Poetic in their simplicity, the Wallflowers call to mind the diverse associations that flowers have in our lives-they represent life, honor death, are given in times of happiness, sadness, and provide aesthetic pleasure.
In addition to being symbols of so much humanity, artists have painted flowers to explore color, form, texture, and composition for centuries. "These images are systematic results of brush, color, and paper," says Sultan. The works are as much about flowers as they are about painting. "I chose 'flowers' because flowers can really be anything...these are an excuse for repetition and a use of color as though hung on an object. They have been described as paintings of flowers by someone who has only heard there was once something called flowers, but has never seen them."
Also on view is a new black and white painting, Tar and Spackle Flowers May 2 2008 (tar and spackle on tile over masonite, 72 x 72 inches), as well as two new multiples--wall sculptures depicting a single flower, reduced and abstracted. The sculptures exist in two versions-deep red Israeli sand and lead mounted on board, and black silkscreen on gold leaf mounted on board. While these multiples are a venture into new media for Sultan, they combine the delicate imagery and industrial materials characteristic of Sultan's work.
Media
Schedule
from January 22, 2009 to March 07, 2009
Opening Reception on 2009-01-22 from 18:00 to 20:00