Donald Sultan came of age during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At this time artistic practices were shifting from the austerity of Minimalism to more experiential modes focused on the series of events leading up to an artwork’s creation instead of the final object itself. Sultan’s body of work combines inspiration from both these directions. His compositions, while abstract, are filled with provocative imagery that references the painterly traditions of the landscape and still life. Black eggs and lemons are recurring motifs in the artist’s work. Here, an oval executed in his signature shadowy style weighs down the lower left hand side of the image. While his choice of subject matter may seem banal, Sultan’s exploration of materials and the interplay of positive and negative space gives his works the ability to, as he has described, “turn you off and on at the same time.”

Label from Drawing: The Beginning of Everything, July 8–October 15, 2017