Curator Robert Fleck 30 APRIL - 23 MAY, 2025, Villa Ipranosyan, Istanbul
Sevil Dolmacı Istanbul is proud to present the exhibition "European and American Art". Taking place from April 30 to May 23, 2025, the exhibition will host world-renowned artists at the forefront of contemporary art. The curator of the exhibition is Robert Fleck, an art historian from the Düsseldorf Academy who has authored many reference books on contemporary art.
Robert Fleck is the former museum director of the Deichtorhallen International Art Museum in Hamburg, where he was also director of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany from 2009 to 2012. He was vice-rector of the Düsseldorf Academy of Art during Tony Cragg's rectorate and is currently a professor of art and public affairs at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. Fleck has written books on artists such as Yves Klein, Anselm Kiefer, Pierre Soulages, Julian Schnabel, Eva & Adele, Katharina Fritsch, George Baselitz, Erwin Wurm and Heinz Mack. He structured the catalogs of Pierre Soulages, Katharina Fritsch, Heinz Mack and is still involved in the foundation management of these artists.
The exhibition will include works by artists such as Georg Baselitz, Katherine Bradford, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Ebru Döşekçi, Katharina Fritsch, Katharina Grosse, Erwin Wurm and Ekrem Yalçındağ, whose works are in the most important museums of the world.
Georg Baselitz, born in 1938, is one of the most iconic figures of contemporary art. Baselitz, who recently had a comprehensive exhibition at the Sabancı Museum, is known for his "upside down" painting technique developed in the 1960s, encouraging viewers to look at his paintings from different angles. Baselitz, whose works often include social and political themes, questions traditional patterns of art under the influence of the Postmodernism movement. Over the years, Baselitz has delved deeper into German identity through his art and has established a solid place for himself in the contemporary art literature by participating in important international exhibitions. Today, Baselitz's works are included in some of the world's most prestigious museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Guggenheim Museum, the Albertina Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate, The Broad Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. Baselitz is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Born in 1942, American artist Katherine Bradford uses vibrant colors and abstract forms to create an atmosphere that allows her to explore the emotional dimensions of human experience. With images such as boats at sea, she explores themes of isolation and community. Bradford has been part of efforts to bring women artists to the forefront of contemporary art, and her work has resonated. Her work has been exhibited at museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Bradford has exhibited internationally at museums such as MoMA PS1, Campoli Presti (London and Paris), Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum and Tomio Koyama (Tokyo). He has received awards from the John Simon Guggenheim, Joan Mitchell and Pollock-Krasner foundations and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is held in collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the Menil Collection.
Born in 1954 in the Czech Republic, Jiri Georg Dokoupil represents one of the turning points of the neo-avant-garde movement. Part of the German Junge Wilde movement that began to form in the late 1970s, Dokoupil developed a conceptual and radical understanding of painting. His works with the "Brush Method" he developed in the 1980s subverted traditional painting techniques. An artist who questions the rules of traditional art with his innovative techniques, his works have been exhibited in leading museums in Europe and the world. His works are in the collections of leading museums worldwide such as Musée national d'Art moderne Centre Pompidou; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Kunsthaus Zurich, Korea National Museum of Contemporary Art, Horsens Kunstmuseum, Hammer Museum.
Born in 1972 in Ankara, Ebru Döşekçi is one of our internationally active women artists living in Istanbul and London. Döşekçi uses strong three-dimensional geometric forms to convey and question the personal. Her style, which initially consisted of bright and feminine forms, has evolved into more masculine designs over time. She sees her studio as a sacred space where she finds the freedom to experiment and explore new ideas, and defines her creations in this space as mediators of emotional communication.
German artist Katharina Fritsch (1956) is known for her sculptures and installations that question the perception of objects and gender themes in art. Awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 59th Venice Biennale (The Milk of Dreams) in 2022, Fritsch uses everyday objects and figures to create powerful symbols that question the familiar. Fritsch explores themes of gender and identity in her work, creating meanings beyond objects with her mysterious and striking patterns. She creates works that question the perception of objects and gender themes in art. She has become an important figure in the art world with her unique style and innovative designs. Fritsch represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1995. In 2013, his 4.5m tall Hahn/Cock sculpture was exhibited in Trafalgar Square in London. Through his large-scale monochromatic sculptures, he creates surreal images that question reality and fantasy. He represented Germany at the 1995 Venice Biennale and has had solo exhibitions in many museums in Europe and the United States. These museums include Kunstmuseum Basel, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern in London and K21 in Düsseldorf. He has had retrospective exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zürich and Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Fritsch has also participated in the Sydney Biennale (1988), 46th Venice Biennale (1995), 48th Venice Biennale (1999), Gwangju Biennale (2010), 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and 59th Venice Biennale (2022).
Katharina Grosse, one of the most important painters of our time, was born in Freiburg, Germany in 1961. Her large-scale and extremely powerful paintings subvert the traditional relationships between foreground and background, between surface and ground, between the space of the canvas and the edges of the painting, opening up new worlds of imagination within and outside the work of art. Through an open-ended creative process in which painting acquires performative qualities, Grosse challenges the cornerstones that have long defined the history of painting. Since the late 1990s, Grosse has been using a spray technique that redefines and subverts traditional conceptions of painting. During his performances, his vision spills out into the physical world, flowing onto walls, floors, ceilings, everyday objects and sculptural structures. Combining abstract art and performance art, his large-scale paintings aim to create an experience for the viewer that goes beyond merely being a spectator looking in from the outside. In his most recent canvases, his vividly colored circular lines float almost three-dimensionally on a white background. As the colors intertwine like loose threads, the paintings aim to record the greatest possible action on the smallest surface with Grosse's intense and rapid thoughts. He is one of the leading representatives of abstract art and performance art. "The painting process is a strange coincidence of thought and action. Aggression is the energy that allows you to carry the desire to lose what should be lost. It is nourishing and sustaining in this process." Grosse has pushed the boundaries of contemporary art and realized important innovative projects. His works are in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Albertina Museum, Musée national d'Art moderne Centre Pompidou.
Erwin Wurm was born in Bregenz, Austria in 1954. Wurm creates works that encourage the active participation of viewers, often using ordinary objects. One of his most well-known series of works, "One Minute Sculptures", requires viewers to stand in a prescribed position for a set period of time or pose creatively using specific objects. By requiring the viewer's participation, these works question the definition of art. In his Fat Car series, in which he deliberately distorts automobile models that are considered status symbols, Erwin Wurm has participated in many international biennials and exhibitions, and his works have been exhibited in major museums around the world. Wurm has twice participated in the Venice Biennale, with his installation Narrow House at Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti in 2011 and representing Austria in 2017. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Taipei Museum of Fine Arts (2020); Musée Cantini, Marseille (2019); K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong (2019); Vancouver Art Gallery (2019); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2018); 21er Haus, Belvedere, Vienna (2017); Leopold Museum, Vienna (2017); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo (2017) and Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2016).
Ekrem Yalçındağ was born in Adıyaman in 1964. His works are included in internationally renowned modern art collections such as Istanbul Modern, Sammlung Goetz in Munich, EPO Art Collection, Arthena Foundation in Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart and Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich. He started his art education at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir (1990-1993) and then studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt between 1994-1999 under the guidance of Hermann Nitsch and Thomas Bayrle. Yalçındağ began drawing with the impasto painting technique and developed his first floral motifs in 1994/95. In his studies at the Frankfurter Palmengarten, he found the characteristic abstract floral forms for his paintings. In 1997 he created his first Tondo and Camouflage works. In 2015, he created more monochromatic works and, inspired by Matisse's silhouettes, abandoned the silver color used to frame his floral motifs. In his most recent works, he has expanded his technical repertoire with forms representing nature, combining large-scale, elegant oil painting with wood and silkscreen.
According to Fleck, "European and American Art" shows that since the end of modernism, there has not been a movement with a decisive weight in art, but there has been very good art. For art viewers who, for various reasons, cannot travel to major international exhibitions and fairs, the exhibition also carries an informative and educational mission.
Sevil Dolmaci Gallery welcomes all art lovers to the museum exhibition "European and American Art".
