Description:
watercraft
Label Text:
"Ferry, Sept.. 17, 1987" was based on a newspaper photograph of the British ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise," which capsized in the North Sea in March 1987, claiming over 100 lives. Sultan recast the image into an abstract representation of the listing ship, translating the towers, decks and railings into diagonal wedges, repeated squares and incised lines. The tragedy and destructiveness of the event are expressed in the dark, foreboding color palette and the scratches and gouges in the heavily textured surface.
Characteristically, Sultan has used industrial materials - tar and spackle on vinyl tiles. Here as with many of his "event paintings," Sultan is interested in both representation and abstraction and views this work as a contemporary history painting. The date in his title, however, refers to his completion of the painting rather than to the date of the event on which it is based.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1994.11.88 |
