Born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1951, Donald Sultan received his BA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his MA from the Art Institute of Chicago. Sultan is best known for his large still lifes and landscapes in which he is reputable for his use of black forms against areas of bright color. Sultan’s style is simultaneously abstract and representational: while his imagery is immediately recognizable—flowers, daily objects, insignia—the dominating, abstract forms oppose its common association with fragility. 

Sultan uses industrial material, including vinyl, linoleum, and masonite, juxtaposing his traditional subject matter with unusual materials. His finished works combine a Minimalist aesthetic of few colors and geometric shapes with a highly unique treatment and destruction of surface, distinctively textured and equally balancing positive and negative space.

Since 1977, Sultan has traveled internationally with solo exhibitions at many prominent contemporary art galleries, including the Knoedler Gallery and Blum-Helman Gallery in New York, the Waddington Gallery in London, and Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris, among others. 

Sultan’s works are featured in permanent collections of over 50 major museums internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Tate Modern, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 

Donald Sultan lives and works in New York, NY and Sag Harbor, NY.