One corner in my new show, “The Light Within”, at Brooklyn Workshop Gallery (September 5 – October 11.) The combination of metallic surfaces on the series to the right (“Silma 1-4”) and the chalky intensity of “Kannakam” on the gorgeously textured wall on the left pleases my eye. How to talk about the visual without […]
Altoon Sultan
Evocative Objects
‘Ghost Dance Dress’: Southern Arapaho artist, Oklahoma, circa 1890 (Photo: Joshua Ferdinand) The best way I know of dealing with the scale and scope of the Metropolitan Museum is to walk through and let the objects find you. Art critic Michael Kimmelman did his own version of the “evocation stroll” in the company of numerous […]
- Aesthetics
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Hazy Border to the Wonder-World
Blade, 6 x 7″, egg tempera on calfskin parchment by Altoon Sultan Wonder, to preserve itself, withdraws. It withdraws from the mind, from the willing mind, which would make of mystery a category. I remember being told a story about an old culture that believed the center of the forest was holy and could not […]
- Aesthetics
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Awesomeness is Good for You
Piero della Francesca (Tuscany 1412? – 1492, Tuscany),The Senigallia Madonna and Child with Two Angels Tempera and oil on wood. Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Most of my artist friends can speak about the exhilarating and very personal experience of being deeply moved by a work of […]
In Praise of Small Art
Small art featured in Brett Baker’s online show of small works: Blades, 6 x 7 inches, egg tempera on calfskin parchment stretched on panel, by Altoon Sultan. (This painting hangs in my house and pleases me deeply every day.) Artist Lori Ellison posted the following essay on Facebook in response to notice of Brett Baker’s […]
Rapt with Satisfied Attention
“Pale Pair (for Malevich)”, hand dyed wool on linen, by Altoon Sultan (Photo: Altoon Sultan) In recent years I’ve begun to think of all my various endeavors — painting, textiles, photography, blogging — as part of a whole artistic life, broader and more ordinary than my New York art-world life. I want to make art […]