Pear, Lemon, Egg 1985

Donald Sultan made this black ink drawing called 'Pear, Lemon, Egg'. It’s all inky and blobby, so you just know he was having fun pushing that ink around. I can see it coming into being, maybe starting with a puddle, then another, and another… kind of like letting shapes emerge through trial, error, and intuition. It’s interesting how a pear, a lemon, and an egg can become these heavy, almost melancholic forms in Sultan’s hands. There’s something about the weight of the ink, how it sits on the paper, that gives them a real presence. The dark simplicity reminds me of Morandi, who transformed humble bottles and jars into monumental still lifes. It feels like Sultan is also in conversation with this mood; trying to show that even the simplest things have depth. It's as if these everyday objects have stories, and he is just scratching at the surface of them.