IMPRESSIONS FROM THE STREETS
02.09. – 07.10.2012

Ekrem Yalcindag (*1964 in Gölbasi, Turkey) is one of the most renowned Turkish artists of our time. He studied in Izmir and with Thomas Bayrle and Hermann Nitsch (master student) at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. His works can be found in public collections such as the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art,
the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the Goetz Collection. Ekrem Yalcindag lives and works in Istanbul and Berlin.
His large-format circular paintings with a diameter of two meters are constructed like the annual rings of a tree. They captivate the eye and, due to their size, allow an almost physical immersion in their staggered color spaces. At the same time, they significantly mark the exhibition space. The relief-like, haptic surface of the works, which Ekrem Yalcindag applies with a miniature brush made of millimeter-thick paint in an extremely complex painting process, awakens a lasting desire to touch them.
Ekrem Yalcindag does not choose the colors completely freely, but rather follows a special system: If the artist notices interesting color combinations in his environment, he photographs them or makes notes. Later, he incorporates these colors into his pictures. In a sense, they are seismographs for recording color values ​​and color contrasts over the period of their production. For the large circular paintings, the painting and recording process extends over two months. Wave-shaped works from this series also have their color references in the artist’s world. The exhibition is complemented by monochrome works by the artist.

Kai Middendorff

Curated by Klaus Becké.