Turkish artist Güleryüz’s most recent works to be exhibited in Paris

ISTANBUL

Acclaimed Turkish artist Mehmet Güleryüz’s most recent works will be exhibited in Paris. The exhibition “De l’Intérieur,” consisting of his works painted while in Paris, will open its doors on Nov. 15 at the Gallery Cyril Guernieri in Paris.

With his critical and expressionist style, Mehmet Güleryüz has earned himself a special and privileged place in the artistic scene in Turkey in over half a century. The artist uses a critical and ironic language to express the effects of Turkey’s sociocultural and political transformation on people through his figurative works.

He has been meticulously observing Turkish society since the 1960s and has taken under focus the transformation the society has gone through.

As a witness of all the political turmoil in a country that has experienced a fast transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, Güleryüz is one of the first Turkish painters that dared to tackle issues, like sexuality, which have remained taboo.

The works that will be exhibited reflect a society that “while carrying the attributes of modernism with pride falls victim to fear and loneliness,” “a society subjected to the constant watch of Big Brother that sneaks into their bedrooms,” according to the press release.

Although Güleryüz studied in Fine Arts in Paris in the 1970s, he had not opened an exhibition in Paris for the past 30 years. He will be presenting his latest work to art lovers at the Gallery Cyril Guernieri, which has opened its doors in January 2018, the year Güleryüz celebrated his 80th birthday and Cyril Guernieri celebrated his 40th.

The exhibition will remain open until Dec. 22.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1938, he began his studies at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts Department of Painting in 1958.

Güleryüz opened his first personal art exhibition featuring drawings in 1963. Between 1970 and 1975, he received advanced training in painting and lithography during a state scholarship to Paris.

The years 1975-1980 were spent teaching at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts Department of Painting. In 1980, he resigned and settled in New York until 1984, returning to Istanbul in 1985.

Güleryüz provided art training at a studio until 2000. He was the vice president of the International Association of Art (IAA) Europe and member of the World IAA executive committee between 2002 and 2005.

The exhibition in 2015 at Istanbul Modern, “Painter and Painting: A Mehmet Güleryüz Retrospective,” presenting an inventory of the artist’s oeuvre from 1960-2010, has attracted 300,000 visitors.