Donald Sultan Wallflower (Aqua and Red) 2018 Signed Screenprint Edition of 12
Artist: Donald Sultan Title: Wallflower (Aqua and Red) Medium: Screenprint in Colors Size: 69" h × 27" w Edition: 11/12 Publisher: Har-El Printers and Publishers, Tel Aviv Inscription: Initialed titled, dated, and numbered to front "11/12 Aqua and Red Jun 10 2018 DS" Year: 2018 Documentation: Gallery Certificate of Authenticity "Wallflower (Aqua and Red)" is a monumental color screenprint by Donald Sultan, an artist whose work has helped redefine contemporary still life through bold, graphic compositions. Throughout his career, Sultan has transformed familiar subjects into flattened, simplified forms, using flowers as a recurring motif to examine repetition, silhouette, and the relationship between organic imagery and geometric structure. In "Wallflower (Aqua and Red)", stylized aqua blossoms are set against a vibrant red background, creating a striking visual contrast that shifts between decorative pattern and abstract composition. The densely clustered flowers appear both delicate and monumental, with simplified contours emphasizing rhythm, balance, and spatial compression over naturalistic detail. Carefully controlled positive and negative space gives the composition a strong sense of movement while maintaining formal clarity. The screenprint process is integral to the work's impact. Saturated layers of color and crisp edges reinforce its graphic quality while highlighting the richness of the printed surface. Drawing on the visual language of Minimalism and Pop Art, Sultan reimagines the traditional still life as an investigation of structure, repetition, and color. At nearly six feet tall, the print's scale enhances its physical presence, allowing the floral imagery to function as an immersive visual field. Sultan's flower prints are represented in major museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Works such as "Flowers", "Yellow Roses", "Blue Flowers", and "Green Flowers" demonstrate his sustained engagement with botanical imagery across multiple printmaking techniques. Published by Har-El Printers and Publishers in Tel Aviv in 2018, "Wallflower (Aqua and Red)" was issued in a highly limited edition of only 12 impressions. The print is initialed, dated, and numbered in pencil by the artist. Measuring 69 inches high by 27 inches wide, it exemplifies Sultan's mastery of monumental scale, bold color, and refined compositional precision. Please note that digital renderings and photographs may feature frames, plinths, or other display staging for illustrative purposes only. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, artwork is sold unframed and without display fixtures. To inquire about framing options, custom display cases, or additional specifications, please contact us directly. About Donald Sultan Donald Sultan (b. 1951, Asheville, North Carolina) is an American artist internationally recognized for his reinterpretation of still life through a bold visual language rooted in industrial materials, graphic structure, and formal reduction. Emerging in the late twentieth century, Sultan became associated with a generation of artists who reintroduced representational imagery into contemporary art while maintaining the conceptual rigor of abstraction. He received a BFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973 and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1975. Early in his career, Sultan gained attention for large-scale paintings that incorporated unconventional materials such as tar, enamel, vinyl tiles, and spackle. These works frequently depicted everyday subjects — flowers, fruit, tools, and industrial forms — translated into simplified silhouettes that emphasize mass, surface, and compositional order. Sultan's flower paintings and prints remain among his most recognizable bodies of work. Rather than pursuing botanical realism, he reduces floral forms to stark, rhythmic arrangements that hover between abstraction and representation. Strong contrasts, flattened space, and expansive areas of color create images that are simultaneously decorative and architectonic, reflecting the influence of Minimalism, Japanese print traditions, and modernist design principles. Sultan's work is included in the collections of major institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Tate. His career reflects a sustained commitment to transforming familiar imagery into formally rigorous compositions that bridge contemporary abstraction and representation.