Achillo “Achi” Sullo Abstract Ink Drawing, Mid to Late 20th Century

Item Details

Achillo “Achi” Sullo (Massachusetts, 1922 – 2013)
Untitled (abstract), mid to late 20th century
Ink drawing on paper
Unsigned
Artist’s estate stamp marked to verso

Achillo ‘Achi’ Sullo was a first-generation Italian-American artist, born and raised in Medford, Massachusetts. A veteran of World War II and a D-day survivor, he served in the Engineering Corps painting camouflage onto military vehicles. Sullo went on to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on the GI Bill, during which time he spent a year studying abroad in Italy in France. His work evolved throughout his artistic career, with earlier pieces heavily influenced by post-impressionism and expressionism, and later marked by a shift into abstract expressionism and hard-edged abstraction with a concentration on organic forms.

Sullo’s work was shown in two early solo exhibitions in 1958 at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts and in 1961 at Dunbarton Galleries in Boston, after which he decided to make his living as a manager at Gilbert & Davis Catering in Roxbury, Massachusetts and to keep the majority of his artistic practice out of the public eye and simply for personal enjoyment. The few works he chose to exhibit after this were shown in group exhibitions up through the 1970s, including a 1974 exhibition titled Quadriga at the Boston City Hall. He continued to be prolific in his creation of paintings, drawings, and sculptural forms, and lived in Massachusetts until his death at the age of 91 in 2013.