Four Blue Flowers, May 19, 1999 1999

Donald Sultan made this print, Four Blue Flowers, on May 19, 1999. Four, kind of like a quartet. It's mostly indigo, with some white popping through. I imagine Sultan was thinking about botanical illustration, but also maybe something a bit more abstract, something that feels like a color field painting. I can just picture him in his studio, layering the ink, maybe wiping it away, finding the balance between representation and pure color. The white dots are the focal points, stark against the deep blue. These are not your typical delicate flower paintings, right? There's a toughness to them, an assertiveness in the color choice. I think he's winking at the viewer a little. The whole process of printmaking, it's about multiples and iteration. It's like Sultan is in conversation with other painters, riffing off their ideas, maybe even arguing with them a little. Painting is a form of expression, and this print feels like a meditation on stillness. You're never quite sure what you are looking at, and that's kind of the point.