Altoon Sultan

Altoon Sultan is an American artist and author renowned for her rural landscapes rendered in egg tempera.

Biography of Altoon Sultan

Altoon Sultan was born in 1948 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She earned her BA and MFA degrees from Brooklyn College, where she studied with Philip Pearlstein and Lois Dodd. Sultan also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

In 1971 and 1995, she was elected as a Member of the National Academy of Design in New York. This honor recognized her significant contributions to the arts and her esteemed position within the artistic community.

During her artistic career, Sultan has received numerous awards, fellowships and accolades, including:

• Macdowell Colony Fellowship (1972 and 1974);
• Yaddo Fellowship (1975 and 1976);
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant (1983 and 1989);
• Karolyi Foundation Residency Grant (1984);
• Prix Duc de Valverde d"Ayala Valva, Fondation Monaco (1999);
• Academy Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters (1999);
• The J. Sanford Saltus Gold Medal for Painting, National Academy of Design (2001);
• The Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, Vermont Arts Council (2012).

Her solo exhibitions have been held at various galleries and museums worldwide, including Chris Sharp Gallery in Los Angeles, Hollybush Gardens in London, Robischon Gallery in Denver, McKenzie Fine Art in New York, Galleria Marieschi in Monza, Mary Ryan Gallery in New York, among other esteemed venues.

Currently, the artist lives and works in Groton, Vermont.

Altoon Sultan's Famous Paintings

Sultan is recognized for her focus on materials and color, often prioritizing these elements over deeper conceptual meanings in her work. She is also noted for eschewing the large scale commonly associated with minimalist art, instead opting for a smaller, more intimate scale in her pieces.

Her recent pieces include "Orange Mouth" (2022), "Black Handle" (2022), "From a Circle" (2022), "Looped Handle" (2022), "Green and Yellow Curves" (2022), and "Two Openings" (2022). 

Altoon Sultan's Art Style

Sultan's work upholds a tradition of realism, where capturing perceived reality is closely followed by its vivid and precise interpretation. Her formalist approach emphasizes composition, color, spatiality, and light. Initially, Sultan's paintings featured domestic, predominantly Victorian architecture. Over time, her practice evolved to depict expansive agricultural landscapes, refining her focus to include related machinery and industry, rendered with meticulous detail.

In her works, tension is heightened by their unconventional subjects. Mass-produced machinery is treated as volumes and color planes, with their structural integrity rich in aesthetic potential. Each closely framed, isolated segment paradoxically both conceals and reveals: detailed views highlight fragments of hydraulics, axes, contours, and curvatures. Sultan's meticulous attention invites viewers to consider the fragment's connection to a larger engineered system or mechanical whole, prompting speculation about its circuitry, scale, and ultimate function.