Mehmet Güler (painter)

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Mehmet Güler (* 1944 in Malatya , Turkey ) is a German-Turkish painter and graphic artist . He is one of the world's most famous Turkish artists, although he has lived in Kassel , Germany, since 1977 .

Life

Guler grew up in Anatolia and studied painting and graphics at Gazi University in Ankara after finishing school . He finished his studies in 1965 with a diploma in painting and graphics. After compulsory military service and working as an art teacher and then as a lecturer at Gazi University, he received a two-year scholarship from the Turkish Ministry of Education, which he spent in Kassel . In 1976 Güler obtained the German diploma for painting and graphics at the University of Fine Arts in Kassel. After returning to Turkey, he taught again at Gazi University. The increasing politicization in the university business prompted him to move with his family to Kassel at the end of 1977, where he has lived and worked as a freelance artist ever since.

plant

Graphic work

His woodcuts stand out from Güler's early work, in which he primarily deals with the life of the people in rural Turkey and which show socially critical tendencies. These works, in which he often uses the structure of wood as a basic element, are still figurative and show people in their living and working conditions. In the course of his artistic development, the figurative receded or was more and more consciously reduced, but is often still recognizable on closer examination of his work. In 2007, the art magazine viewed Güler's work as the result of an East-West European field of tension.

painting

In his painting, Güler's main work, and in his color etchings, he found and still finds his own form of expression and formal language, in which the colored surfaces condense and in which the colors seem to explode. His artistic success is also based on this "luminosity" of his paintings - the title of a large retrospective exhibition in Kassel in 2019. Frank Günter Zehnder explains :

“You can hardly be wrong with Mehmet Guler's pictures. They are unmistakable, their handwriting is always clear and recognizable. Over the years, like all great oeuvres, his visual language went through some changes in terms of content, form and process; it retained its basic key, its style and its direct address, so to speak. It has peculiarities and basic lines that have come together over decades from the early woodcuts to the current oil paintings. His art is neither thoughtless nor top-heavy, it demands both intellectual understanding and, very directly, sensation and empathy. The most recent, almost glowing pictures set signals and arouse curiosity, they require intensive observation down to the last detail and lead to concentrated reading through the picture surfaces. The pictorial world of the painter is a separate cosmos with individually developed laws, which, far from any rigidity, allow all freedom for each individual accent. Whoever gets involved with them opens windows and doors, so to speak, for an encounter with existential statements and with the storming force of the colors. "

Sculptures

Since 2002, Mehmet Güler has also been creating sculptures made of wood and metal, which the art journalist Dirk Schwarze located in the “border area between nature and sculpture”.

Exhibitions

Guler has over 200 solo exhibitions by 2019, mainly in Germany and Turkey, but also in the USA, Great Britain, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. He also took part in numerous group exhibitions and was invited to international biennials , triennials and trade fairs . His works can be found in numerous public collections and such public institutions.

Selection of recent solo exhibitions

  • "Paintings and Graphics" - Liebau Gallery, Burghaun 2002
  • "Mehmet Güler - attempted dialogue - not possible, attempted dialogue - is possible" - Galerie Sievi, Berlin and Kassel Galerie Bittner & Dembinski, 2003
  • “Mehmet Güler” (oil paintings and etchings) - Arda Art Gallery, Ankara 2005
  • "Mehmet Güler: Oil paintings and graphics" - Gallery Spectrum, Euskirchen 2006
  • "Mehmet Güler", Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art , Duisburg 2007
  • "Mehmet Güler: attempted dialogue" - Kunstverein Lübbecke, Lübbecke 2008
  • "Mehmet Güler (1944) - Tem Art Gallery", Istanbul 2011
  • "Those who know themselves and others ... Painting by Mehmet Güler" Exhibition at the 64th Bensberg Art Encounter, 2012
  • "Mehmet Güler: Orient and Occident", Brauweiler Abbey, Cologne 2013
  • "Mehmet Güler: Diyalog ve Gerilim" - Batibirlik Sanat Galerisi, Ankara 2013
  • "In the intoxication of colors", retrospective exhibition, Unna Cultural Office, Cappenberg Castle 2014
  • Gallery on Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin 2015
  • Galerie Sievi, Berlin 2016
  • Gallery Tem, Istanbul 2016
  • International Art Fair Karlsruhe, solo exhibition, 2018
  • Gallery Spectrum, Euskirchen, 2019
  • KulturNetz Kassel e. V., documenta Halle Kassel, 2019

Prizes and awards (selection)

  • 2014 award of the city of Kassel with the “Golden Badge of Honor”.
  • 2013 Bosphorus Awards, Turkish-European Foundation for Education and Scientific Research DTS
  • 2001 Premio Agazzi, Bergamo, Italy
  • 1991 Prize in the international graphics competition Bergamo, Italy
  • 1990 Prize for the International Graphic Triennial Frechen, Germany
  • 1986 Prize for the International Graphic Triennial Frechen, Germany
  • 1984 Award from the Enka Foundation, competition for painting and graphics, Turkey
  • 1983 DYO competition for painting and graphics, Turkey
  • 1983 Vakko competition for painting and graphics, Turkey
  • 1983 Sedat Simavi Foundation Prize, Performing Arts Prize, Turkey
  • 1983 Wiking graphic award, competition, Turkey
  • 1979 DYO competition for painting and graphics, Turkey
  • 1977 DYO competition for painting and graphics, Turkey
  • 1975 Prize of the 36th State Art Exhibition for Graphics, Turkey
  • 1974 DYO competition for painting and graphics, Turkey
  • 1973 Award of the DYO competition for painting and graphics, Turkey

literature

  • Mehmet Güler: Past in the Sun (autobiography), Engelschoff: Verlag auf dem Ruffel, 2019
  • Mehmet Güler: Güneşte Geçmiş , Dünya Verlag, Istanbul 2005
  • Dialogue and tension , Edition Schöne Bücher, Kettler Verlag, Dortmund 2014. Text: Thomas Hengstenberg
  • In the intoxication of colors , Kulturamt Unna 2014, texts: Prof. Dr. F. Günter Zehnder, Prof. Dr. Markus Müller, Prof. Dr. Kaya Özsezgin, Dirk Schwarze, Thomas Hengstenberg.
  • Peaceful occupation - Barışcıl Kuşatma , 1969–2000 Galerie Binyıl, Istanbul 2000, text: Prof. Dr. KayaÖzsezgin
  • Peaceful occupation - Barışcıl Kuşatma , 1969–1999 Kulturamt Unna 1999, text: Prof. Dr. Hans Ottomeyer
  • Die Fremde -Yabancı , 1985–1992 Galerie Benadam, Istanbul 1992, text: Prof. Dr. F. Günter Zehnder
  • Michael Nungesser: Mehmet Guler - Past in the Sun , Berlin 1985
  • Volker Wiegand (Ed.): Mehmet Guler - Through the glowing heat. Woodcuts 1969-1985 . Cologne 1985

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Exhibition: Mehmet Guler - Orient and Occident. ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: abtei-brauweiler.de . March 28, 2013, accessed December 28, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abtei-brauweiler.de
  2. Mehmet Güler, Through the glowing heat, Die Holzschnitte 1969–1985, Ed. Edition Wiegand, Cologne 1985.
  3. Mehmet Güler - attempted dialogue. ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: kunst-magazin.de . Retrieved December 28, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kunst-magazin.de
  4. Mehmet Güler - Im Rausch der Farben, Dortmund 2014, p. 17
  5. ^ Exhibition Mehmet Güler ?? 5. September 2003. In: dirkschwarze.net . Retrieved December 28, 2013.
  6. Mehmet Gueler site - solo exhibitions. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 1, 2018 ; accessed on January 31, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mehmetgueler.de