Maud Sulter


Maud Sulter was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She died in Dumfries, Scotland, in 2008 and is survived by two daughters and a son.

Education

Born in Glasgow to a Scots mother and a Ghanaian father, Maud Sulter attained a master's degree in Photographic Studies from the University of Derby.

Career

Sulter's photographic practice included contemporary portraiture and montage. Her work typically referenced historical and mythical subjects. Her photography was exhibited in across the UK and internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1987; the Johannesburg Biennial ; and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2003. She received a number of awards and residencies, including the British Telecom New Contemporaries Award 1990 and the Momart Fellowship at Tate Liverpool, also in 1990.
She worked closely with Lubaina Himid, including on the book Passion: Discourses on Blackwomen’s Creativity, published by Urban Fox Press in 1990.
As well as writing about art history and curating many exhibitions, Sulter was also a poet and playwright, whose works include the collections As a Blackwoman ; Zabat ; and Sekhmet. She wrote a play inspired by the background of former Ghana head of state Jerry Rawlings, entitled Service to Empire.
She died in 2008, aged 47, after a long illness.

Legacy

Maud Sulter's work is held in a number of collections, including the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Arts Council Collection, the British Council, the Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Parliament Collection.
In 2011–12, her work was shown at Tate Britain, London, in the exhibition Thin Black Line, which was a re-staging of the seminal 1986 exhibition The Thin Black Line at the ICA.
In 2017, her Muses, two portraits were put on show in the Walker Gallery as part of the largest LGBTQ+ art exhibition in the UK, Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender, and Identity.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions