Altoon Sultan, Resident Artist Lecture 1988

Beginning with slides of lesser known artists who have been important influences on her painting, Brooklyn-born artist Altoon Sultan gives a brief art history lesson and then shows examples of her own work from 1975 on. The narrative which accompanies the slides is primarily descriptive, although she does comment on the loss of her buying audience when she chose to depart from naturalistic landscape in order to explore other possibilities. She discusses how she chooses and composes her subject matter, both from life and from photographs. Towards the end of the lecture she shows slides which illustrate the process she uses to make work following a particular studio painting from beginning to end. In addition to the landscapes, she shows examples of and talks about her drawings, prints and still lifes. At a couple of points in the lecture she talks about what she means by the term realism.