Yüksel Arslan (1933 - 2017) Click for Artist Information

Yuksel Arslan

YUKSEL ARSLAN (1933 - 2017)

He was born in Istanbul in 1933. While he was attending Istanbul Boys' High School, he attracted attention with his paintings in a mixture of watercolor, gouache and pastel. He left his Art History education at Istanbul University unfinished to focus on painting and opened his first exhibition in 1955. In 1959, he completed the Phallisme Series.

He went to Paris in 1961 as the guest of Andre Breton and Raymond Cordier. In the 1960s, he organized exhibitions in Paris, Copenhagen and Berlin and continued to work on the "Arture" series. In 1964, he was invited to the "Surrealism: Sources, Histoire, Affites" exhibition organized by Gallery Charpantier, a very important gallery. In 1969, he started working on the "Capital" series, which was influenced by the writings of Karl Marx. Arslan's first exhibition in the USA took place in 2008 at the Drawing Center in New York. The artist, an autodidact painter, went beyond the oil painting technique on canvas and developed a unique surreal style with his own material, line and paint applications.

He expresses his thoughts in his paintings by investigating the plastic values ​​of the painting. The first striking feature of the artist's works is that he puts soil on the paper he will use, adds various dyes, and makes water and oil stains. His works shed light on a new formation in Turkish painting. His paintings are in various museums and private collections in Turkey and abroad.

Arslan's works include the influence of the writings of Nietsche, Marx and Freud, the meeting of Eastern and Western traditions, and topics such as psychology, eroticism and the subconscious. Traces of eastern miniatures and Anatolian folklore can be seen in his paintings. He passed away in 2017.