Istanbul Modern presents a new retrospective

“Painter and Painting: Mehmet Güleryüz”

With his critical and expressionist style, Mehmet Güleryüz has earned himself a special and privileged place in the art scene in Turkey over half a century. In Painter and Painting: A Mehmet Güleryüz Retrospective, Istanbul Modern presents an inventory of the artist’s oeuvre from the 1960s to the 2010s.

The artist uses a critical and ironic language to express, through his figurative works, the effects of Turkey’s sociocultural and political transformation on people. The exhibition sheds light on the development and transformation of Güleryüz’s generous quest for expression, which ranges from painting, drawing, sculpture, and engraving to theater and performance. On view between January 8 and June 28, 2015, in Istanbul Modern’s Temporary Exhibition Hall, this new retrospective features close to 150 works and approximately 300 drawings projected in multimedia presentations.

Curated by Istanbul Modern Director Levent Çalıkoğlu, the retrospective follows a chronological course featuring the specific image typology developed by Mehmet Güleryüz, who uses his keen powers of observation to convey the complex processes shaped by family, social conditions, socio- economic and environmental factors; as well as the nature-human relationship; class struggles; and existential problems involved in an individual’s desire to exist. In addition to drawings and paintings, the retrospective “Painter and Painting” features significant research and examples of Güleryüz’s sculpture from the 1970s to the present.

Enriched by texts penned by Güleryüz, the exhibition brings together the works the artist has produced since the 1960s in fields such as drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving, painted porcelain and performances. Furthermore, a rich biographical wall-display features all of Mehmet Güleryüz’s periods and brings together his life story, the environments he has experienced, and texts about him, thus rendering visible a personal story of the art scene in Turkey from the 1960s to the present.

Another area at the entrance of the exhibition features visual materials and texts about Gariplikler Müzesi (The Museum of Oddities), a performance-likesculptural installation that Mehmet Güleryüz exhibited in Fındıklı Park for the Akademi Art Festival in 1979.

The connection between theater and the visual arts

The exhibition “Painter and Painting” conveys the extraordinary development of the art and unique style of Güleryüz, who studied at the Devlet Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi (State Academy of Fine Arts) in the 1960s, worked as a professional actor at politically oriented theaters, made a name for himself in Paris in the 1970s with his happenings, and played an influential role in the transformation of the art scene in Turkey since the 1980s.

Mehmet Güleryüz transforms the human typology of his time into a pictorial image, using an ironic approach nourished by immediate observations, expressions of deep and complex relationships, and small gestures. He invites his audience to face the processes experienced, settle accounts, and look at the world from a new perspective. He sees painting as “a matter of research, of piecing together”. Güleryüz, who deals with “dissonant, disquieting, eerie, daunting problems and uncanny situations”, states that during the process of painting he relies on “premonitions, feelings, and intuitions, or rather animal instincts.”

When reconstructingand transforming reality, Mehmet Güleryüz draws the unique style and expressive power of his paintings from the theater. Featuring life itself and subjects that are easily ignored by society, he conceives his paintings in a dramatic fashion like a theater play. His strong interest in acting and drawing started when he was a child. As an artist who has acted on the stage and extended the practice of acting to painting, the close connection he establishes between theater and the visual arts serves as one of the most interesting examples of the interdisciplinary approach. “You can find all of the main concerns of painting in the theater. Installation, composition, set, costume, lighting, creating characters... All of these require significant visual knowledge. Theater and painting directly nourish one another. I have nourished my pleasure of the theater, or my need for theater, with my painting intelligence. I learned theater at the theater, while acting.”

“Drawing is an artistic language in its own right”

Mehmet Güleryüz establishes an atypical language through his unique way of using drawing and the figure. Creating visual diversity through images, he produces works that confront prohibitions, taboos, and indoctrinations: works which “grasp the time that is experienced and are vestigial”. On the one hand, he conveys his experiences of the outside world and the emotional reactions of his inner world through expressionist scenes featuring fantastical images that make references to his individual world. On the other hand, he reflects his critique of the social order in his works by creating metaphors with black humor in which he does not fail to insert himself as well.

In terms of line and drawing, Güleryüz has a unique character and style. For him, drawing is not simply an infrastructural element of painting; it is an artistic language in its own right. A fundamental process which he applies in sketch books daily and in his paintings over extended periods. For Güleryüz, drawing is a being that he considers to be as much a part of him as the way he holds on to life, breathes and celebrates existence. “The drawing should, on the one hand, grasp the time that is experienced, and on the other hand, demonstrate the vestigial approach in drawing as well as assert its contact with the surface and the traces of its inherent aggression.”

The exhibition “Painter and Painting” also features a collection which came into being with the scanning of forty drawing pads and countless independent drawings by Mehmet Güleryüz. Shedding light on the nearly sixty-year adventure of his drawing, the exhibition reflects the artist’s inner world, enthusiasm, sorrow and rebellion.

Press conference

The press conference for the exhibition was attended by Mehmet Güleryüz, Chair of the Board of Istanbul Modern Oya Eczacıbaşı, and Director of Istanbul Modern and exhibition curator Levent Çalıkoğlu.

Mehmet Güleryüz stated that the title of his retrospective, “Painter and Painting” points to both of these integral concepts in relation to his art and investigates the relationship between them. Güleryüz added: “The issue is not making a painting but rather thinking about painting. A painter is a person who thinks about painting. The idea of painting embodies many other crucial values and endeavours, such as history, sociology and philosophy. I have wandered according to my own painterly needs; I went where my love of painting took me. I did so in accordance with my intellectual and technical needs, and in accordance with the problems I believed I should encounter, solve or re-solve. The reality of my painting is that it emerges from real reasons and needs. The relationship that my painting establishes with its viewer is also explicit; it doesn’t pave way for doubt. If researching what art, painting and theater is, seeing how issues take shape within the context of these, and striving to expose them through a personal and specific expression rather than solely brushing over them with a few words pleases me, then I also have to overcome any obstacles that appear on my path.”

Expressing that he places great importance on his study of art, painting and theater, Mehmet Güleryüz asserted that one cannot be an artist without obliterating what one has made and without running the risk of creating completely different things from them. Güleryüz elucidated: “The individual we refer to as an artist aims to reshape the images he/she selects from the totality of his/her life experiences in view of his/her intellectual and sensory needs, and with all his/her personal knowledge. The painter strives to bring into existence the fictionalization of nature and human life by considering them from different perspectives above and beyond the accepted norms as well as to convey his/her opinion on them. Mastery is to run the risk of insisting on the pleasure of quarrelling with all questions relating to art and life time and time again.”

Mehmet Güleryüz emphasized that the exhibition encompasses all periods of his art and further explained: “The aim of this exhibition is, in a way, ‘to account’ for the totality of my work to the art viewer as well as to the art scene. Laden with ‘accountability’, a retrospective is a blatant way of coming forward; it is a form of bookkeeping over a long period of time. You underline each item, make an inventory and lay it down openly. A retrospective presents the artist with the opportunity of seeing the totality of the work he/she has produced. Needless to say, that opportunity is just as important for the viewer. I should also say that, when viewing the artworks, it is pivotal to consider the places and the periods in which they were made, for the exhibition will also be conveying what was discussed and how it was discussed at the time of their creation.”

Chair of the Board of Istanbul Modern Oya Eczacıbaşı noted that the retrospective exhibition “Painting and Painter” held by Istanbul Modern presented the multi-faceted artist Mehmet Güleryüz’s oeuvre of over half a century, and added, “At the same time, “Painter and Painting” focuses on the personal story of an artist who was successful enough to earn a living through his own painting without having to depend on any institution. It focuses on an individual with faith and a willingness to struggle, who didn’t surrender his ideals to the popular and variable definitions of “painter” and “painting” in his time and in a changing world, who passionately embraced the surface on which he drew and what he brought into being there, who always questioned what he produced, and who always got back on his feet on his own when he reached a dead end.”

Oya Eczacıbaşı stated that Mehmet Güleryüz’s personality is one that constantly questions, settles scores, and is critical, bearing witness to his times and the people of his era and transferring his observations and records to his work through his expressionist style. “Already interested in painting and theater in his childhood, throughout his life Mehmet Güleryüz has continued unremittingly to draw, to produce paintings and sculptures, and to share what he learns. The exhibition reflects the development and transformation of Mehmet Güleryüz’s inexhaustible energy, artistic quest, and creativity.”

Noting that Istanbul Modern has held eight retrospectives in ten years, Oya Eczacıbaşı added: “For ten years our museum has presented artists in retrospectives that treated their work, personalities, and lives as a whole, while also featuring various events. Istanbul Modern has thus contributed in making these artists known to wider audiences and future generations. Starting in 2005 with Fikret Muallâ, our retrospectives have focused on Fahrelnissa Zeid - Nejad Devrim, Cihat Burak, Sarkis, Hussein Chalayan, Kutluğ Ataman, Burhan Doğançay, and Erol Akyavaş. And now, our first exhibition for 2015 is a retrospective of Mehmet Güleryüz. We will continue to hold comprehensive exhibitions of the works of artists from Turkey in the years to come.”

Stating that they were delighted to be holding an exhibition that presents nearly 60 years of Mehmet Güleryüz’s work, Oya Eczacıbaşı added that various events would be accompanying the exhibition, as always, and that the artist would be participating in educational programs. “In conjunction with the exhibition, the Istanbul Modern Education Department has prepared various educational programs inspired by the artist’s life and work. In addition to these, Mehmet Güleryüz will lead a workshop and conversations on art. Throughout his life, Güleryüz has attached great importance to education and has taught in his own studio as well as in many well-established institutions.”

Exhibition curatorand Istanbul Modern Director Levent Çalıkoğlu stated that Mehmet Güleryüz’s personality and identity are concealed in the personality of all of the typologies and characters he created as a reflection of the painter’s anti-representation on the surface of the painting: “Mehmet Güleryüz is perhaps the first contemporary painter in Turkey to have declared his own personality so overtly through the characters he created. Therefore, we must see Güleryüz not just as a painter and artist who depicts social transformation through the eyes of individuals, but also as a sharp-eyed human being who expresses what is lacking or abundant in his life and which aspects of himself intersect with other people. These typologies are protagonists that represent his multi-faceted personality and his experiences.”

Levent Çalıkoğlu pointed out that “Painter and Painting: A Mehmet Güleryüz Retrospective” focuses on the passionate struggle for over half a century of an artist who devoted himself to understanding the internal and external conditions that make people, himself foremost, what they are, and to analyze this within an artistic field of expression. Çalıkoğlu expressed that the exhibition “Painter and Painting”, “which has a fresh perspective that can’t be defined without Güleryüz, highlights the evolution of art in Turkey, which should be redefined with Güleryüz, from the modern to the contemporary, the transformation it has undergone, the fragility of its individual fields of struggle, and its social process.”