Maud Sulter

Early life and education Born on 19 September 1960 in Glasgow, Scotland, to a Scottish mother and a Ghanaian father, Maud Sulter attained a master's degree in Photographic Studies from the University of Derby. Her maternal grandfather had been an amateur photographer. The exhibition displayed the art of Black and Asian women artists, re-centring the visibility of Black and Asian art in the British art scene. Sulter and Himid worked closely together on projects, curating and exhibiting their work together. Maud Sulter worked across photography, film, installation, collage and photomontage, sound and performance. Her work typically referenced historical and mythical subjects. Her photography was exhibited across the UK and internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1987, the Johannesburg Biennale (1995), and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2003. She received a number of awards and residencies, among them the British Telecom New Contemporaries Award 1990 and the Momart Fellowship at Tate Liverpool, also in 1990.

As well as writing about art history and curating many exhibitions, Sulter was a poet and playwright. Her publications works include the poetry collections As a Blackwoman (1985; her poem of the same title won the Vera Bell Prize from ACER, the Afro-Caribbean Education Resource, the previous year); and "If Leaving You". Sulter's writings are available at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, Glasgow Women's Library, the Stuart Hall Library, London, Poetry Society, London, Tate Library, London, and many other libraries.

Sulter was Principal Lecturer in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, from 1992 to 1994.

Art works

Sphinx Sphinx was Sulter's first major series of photographs. This series of nine black and white photographs shot in The Gambia (Harris Museum and Art Gallery Preston) was first exhibited at Sulter's solo exhibition at The Black Art Gallery in September 1987. The exhibition brochure includes a poem and statements and her manifesto: "We the women will fight... We the women will win."

Zabat Maud Sulter defined "Zabat" as "a sacred dance performed by groups of thirteen", "an occasion of power", possibly the origin of witches sabbat, "Blackwomen's rite of passage". In this series of nine large-scale cibachrome photographs, contemporary black women artists, musicians and writers pose as ancient muses. Each portrait represented a different muse of Greek mythology. Sulter wrote a series of prose poems for each muse, titled "Zabat Narratives". and is about reviving the forgotten history of black Europeans during the Holocaust and their genocide. It includes a fictional character related to the historical background of her piece created by Sulter named Monique. Sulter created a complementary poem called "Blood Money", which has been republished in English. You can access this poem by clicking this link. This series consists of a 16-work photomontage and is presented in five subdivided sets in close proximity. The photomontage artworks were created on top of postcards with landscapes on them and multiple layers of different images collaged. This work has been in an exhibition in the Chapelle de la Charité d'Arles, in Arles, France, in 2016. To view the pieces of this exhibition click this link.

Significant Others A series created by Sulter in 1993 includes nine large-scale photographs mounted in wooden frames, with annotations for each image. The photographs in this exhibition were enlargements of her family's photo archive resembling her Scottish and Ghanaian heritage. Sulter appears in four of the images as a child and her growing up, semblance of her identity. by Charles Baudelaire inspired the piece. Sulter's ideals of this poem inspired her to portray herself in the photos with passion and emotion- opposing the "common view" on this piece as sexualized.

Poetry in Motion A mixed-media piece created in 1985 and meant as a social commentary on the 20th century, this work outlined the struggles and effects of racism that African women faced during this time. Several of Sulter's poems from As a Blackwoman were included in these mixed-media collages. Poetry in Motion was exhibited in 1985 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and curated by Lubaina Himid.

Jeanne Duval: A Melodrama I–IV Inspired by poetry written by Jeanne Duval and her way of writing "which explore her sensuality, sensuality and ethnicity..." This work was created in 1994, after multiple other works inspired by Duval, such as Zabat and Les Bijoux. Sulter had a "visual fascination with Jeanne Duval" since 1988, which "willed" her to create a piece more specific to Duval. As the collective's only Black woman writer at the time, Sulter recognized an increasing need for writing tailored to Black women. She co-founded the Blackwomen's Creativity Project in the early 1980s with Ingrid Pollard. Arts Council Collection, the British Council, McManus Dundee, Glasgow Museums, Tate, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, Women's Art Collection, Cambridge, Touchstones Rochdale, National Galleries of Scotland, Boswell Collection, St Andrews University, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Leeds University Art Gallery, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, the Scottish Parliament Collection, and the Government Art Collection.

In 2011–2012, her work was shown at Tate Britain, London, in the exhibition Thin Black Line(s),

In 2015, Street Level Photoworks Glasgow staged a major exhibition, entitled Maud Sulter: Passion, to showcase her work and achievement, especially in photography and photomontage.Her portraits of 10 pre-eminent Scottish poets were displayed at Hillhead Library, Glasgow. Maud Sulter: Passion travelled to the Impressions Gallery, Bradford, in 2016. During 2016, Sulter's series of Syrcas photomontages was exhibited at Autograph ABP, and at Arles Photography Festival in the Chapelle de la Charité d'Arles, both curated by Autograph ABP director Mark Sealy. Recent exhibitions include: Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema, Paris, 2021 and Sulter: Centre of the Frame, Cambridge and Rochdale, 2021–22.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Publications

Books by Sulter

Books about Sulter

In the section by Deborah Cherry, "The Ghost Begins by Coming Back: Revenants and Returns in Maud Sulter's Photomontages"