Sperone & Westwater Gallery - New York
The Sultans
5 May – 2 June 1990
New York, Sperone & Westwater Gallery
curated by Gian Enzo Sperone
In 1990, the Sperone & Westwater Gallery in New York presented The Sultans, a solo exhibition by Aldo Mondino dedicated to one of the most fascinating and ambitious series of his work: portraits of thirty-six sultans of the Ottoman Empire, all of whom lived between 1200 and 1920.
The exhibition marks the culmination of a long journey of engagement with Eastern culture, developed through the artist’s travels in Morocco and Palestine, where Mondino had perceived a profound parallel between the spiritual dimension of prayer and the intensity of the act of painting. From that fascination arose the Sultans series, in which Mondino reinterprets the figures of Ottoman power with his customary balance of rigour and irony, rendering them through a personal and unmistakable pictorial language.
The Sultans marked an important recognition for Mondino on the international scene, bringing his work to New York for the first time in a dedicated exhibition. The series was later also presented at the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, a symbol of Ottoman history, testifying to the authenticity and depth of the dialogue that Mondino had managed to establish with that civilisation.
Catalogue of the exhibition "The Sultans"
Selim sec°, 1989-1990
olio su linoleum
80 × 60 cm
Tappeti stesi, 1989
olio su eraclite
250 × 200 cm
Osman III, 1989/1990
olio su linoleum
80 × 60 cm