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Artwork Page for Forest Fire, Jan. 5, 1984

Details / Information for Forest Fire, Jan. 5, 1984

Forest Fire, Jan. 5, 1984

1984
Part of a set, view all set records
(American, 1951-)
America
latex, plaster, and tar on vinyl tile over masonite
Panel: 122 x 122 cm (48 1/16 x 48 1/16 in.)
Gift of Agnes Gund 2017.126.b
© Donald Sultan/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: not on view
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

Sultan’s father worked in a tire retreading shop which motivated the artist to use industrial materials.

Description

This multipanel work, showing a raging forest fire, belongs to Donald Sultan’s Disaster Painting series. Sultan layers tar, vinyl, latex, and plaster to create ominous landscapes of industrial and environmental destruction. Dripping tar forms skeletal trees and muddies the gray sky. Orange latex licks at dead branches, engulfs trees in flames, and peels from the linoleum surface. Drawing on source imagery from newspapers, the Disaster Painting series speaks to, in the artist’s words, the “impermanence of all things.”

Forest Fire, Jan. 5, 1984

1984

Donald Sultan

(American, 1951-)
America

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