Bill Sullivan (American, 1942-2010) Weehawken Milonga

1978. Hand-colored lithograph. Signed (lower right) Artist proof.

Catalog Note: Bill Sullivan makes new the vast spaces and swooning optimism of 19th century luminist painting. Reaffirming the contemplation of nature as its own reward, he also sets new tasks for painting and undertakes them with compelling eagerness. While there has been a tendency among some contemporary artists to present a revisionist view of the "great outdoors" of 19th century landscape painters, Sullivan has no satirical agenda. After spending several years in South America amid the landscapes that attracted Frederic Edwin Church and Martin Heade, among others, he refined and strengthened this awesome imagery after returning to New York. A certain surrealist floats though these vaporous visions of Columbia, though this may just be the result of Sullivan's careful documentation of scenes that looked unreal to begin with.