Sultan, an internationally recognized artist who rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of the “New Image” movement, is known for elevating the still-life tradition through the deconstruction of his subjects into basic forms and the use of industrial materials. His paintings characteristically employ enamel, roofing tar, aluminum, linoleum, and spackle, pushing the boundaries of the medium through techniques of gouging, sanding, and buffing to create flatness, depth, and texture. The works are made of the same materials as the building in which the viewer stands; the architecture participates in the paintings. Weighty and structured, Sultan’s paintings are simultaneously abstract and representational: while his imagery is immediately recognizable – flowers, daily objects, insignia, idle factories – the dominating, abstract forms contradict its common association with fragility.

Sultan's notable collections include:

The Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Mass.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
The Art Institute of Chicago
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica, California
Cincinnati Art Museum
Dallas Museum of Art
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardens, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Tate Gallery, London
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Whitney Museum of American Art