Have you met…Altoon Sultan?

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Altoon Sultan, and she was recommended to me by Raveena Taylor, Jay Zerbe, and Rosaire Appel.

Two Circles, 2012, 9 x 6 3/4 in.

About the Paintings

“My paintings have gone through a gradual change in subject matter over the years: from “portraits” of Victorian houses to landscape with architecture, which led to agricultural landscape. As I became more and more interested in the tools of agriculture, both for their meanings and their form, it made sense that I would abandon the landscape altogether. The focus on object also brought my work closer to the abstraction I loved. During summers, I go out to farms to gather images, via photography, of agricultural machinery. These provide me with the information I need to work on paintings in the studio.

For the past several years, I’ve worked exclusively with the medium of egg tempera. This ancient medium, which uses color pigments mixed with egg yolk or white, gives me the crispness and luminosity that is ideally suited for my subject matter.” AS

Chartreuse Ribbon, 2013, 22 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. Textile hand-dyed wool on linen backing.

About the Hooked Rugs

“Women began hooking rugs out of old materials in the Northeastern US and the Canadian maritimes. Since I live in an old house, I thought it would be fun to make rugs for it from my own designs. But then I realized that it was a perfect medium to explore non-objective art. My hooked rugs are meant to be hung on the wall, as art objects.

To make these small textile pieces, I first do pencil and color studies. Then I hand dye woolen cloth, which is later cut into strips and hooked through a linen backing, making loops of wool which create the design.” AS

#3, 2012, graphite and egg tempera paint on paper hand-toned with pigment and gelatin. The paper size is 15 x 15 in.

Altoon Sultan is a native New Yorker––from the Flatbush area of Brooklyn––and now paints, hooks art rugs, and gardens on an old hill farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Her works are in many public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery, London.

Other material relating to Altoon Sultan.

Artist’s website: Altoon Sultan.

Studio and Garden: Altoon Sultan’s blog.

Art New England: Altoon Sultan Studio Visit.

Hyperallecrgic: Altoon Sultan.

Curating Contemporary: Altoon Sultan.

Textile Arts Center: Altoon Sultan.

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