Gönül Sen-Menzel and the Galerie Gerda Türke in Dortmund

About the Galerie Gerda Türke

For many years, the Galerie Gerda Türke was a fixture of Dortmund’s art scene. Gerda Türke started out as the owner of the “Kleines Kunst-Kabinett” at Große Heimstraße 72 and later continued her gallery at Johannesstraße 8a in the city center. She showed painting, graphic art, sculpture and objects by artists from Germany and abroad – from Belgium, Austria, Turkey and Eastern Europe – and supported many of them over the years.

One of its hallmarks was the annual summer exhibition “Artists of the Gallery”, a look back at the exhibition year combined with new work. In 1995 the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that the gallery rooms were “once again not big enough”. Gerda Türke was an artist herself: she painted watercolors, informal pictures and rust paintings, made naturalistic drawings and was active in the peace movement. After her death in 2012, the Galerie Dieter Fischer at the Depot Dortmund honored her in 2014 with the exhibition “Gerda Türke – Gallery Owner and Artist”, curated by her son Franco Camue and the artist Hanfried Brenner.

Gerda Türke and Gönül Sen-Menzel shared a friendship that began in 1985. How close it was became clear in May 2012: at the spring art market of the artists’ group KÖL-TÜR in Gönül Sen-Menzel’s studio, a corner was dedicated to the works of the gallery owner, who had died shortly before – “Gerda, we miss you” (see Kölnische Rundschau, 2012).

Gönül Sen-Menzel at the Galerie Gerda Türke

1985 – Kleines Kunst-Kabinett
In January 1985 she showed 27 works together with the painter Sabahattin Sen at the Kleines Kunst-Kabinett. The press described her colorful painting as a counter-image to a troubled world – showing “what the world could look like”.

1990 – People of the City
Until April 29, 1990, she showed 21 acrylic paintings at the Kleines Kunst-Kabinett: faces and people of the big city, pedestrian zones and cityscapes such as “Köln-Ehrenfeld”.

1992 – Large Landscapes
From March 14 to May 3, 1992, she presented portraits and large-format landscapes in strong red, steel blue and grass green at the gallery on Johannesstraße – among them “The Rhine”, assembled from six individual paintings to a length of 7.20 meters.

1993 – Ten Artists of the Gallery
In a group exhibition of ten artists in August 1993, she was the only one to show entirely new works, made of sawdust, glue and acrylic.

1994 – “The Rhine” and Painted-Over Sample Books
In the summer she took part in “Artists of the Gallery” with her cycle “The Rhine”. From September 10 to October 23, 1994, the solo exhibition “Painting and Objects” followed, with painted-over wallpaper sample books for visitors to leaf through – “I am hungry for color,” she said at the time.

1995 – Summer Exhibition
In the summer exhibition with 20 artists, she showed a series of landscapes in oil on canvas.

1996 – A Passion for Color
From September 1 to October 13, 1996, she exhibited around 150 works created during a one-week stay in Belgium: collages, nudes and landscapes, painted even on bread bags and book pages. “Color is my weapon, my strength. And I love it.”

1998 – New Pictures
After the group exhibition “Faces, Landscapes, Animals” in January, she showed her “Images of People” from March 8 to April 18, 1998: series that put the human being in society at the center.

2000 – “Pictures 2000”
With almost 60 paintings from the year 2000 – landscapes and figures full of light – she returned to the gallery until October 14, 2000, for her sixth solo exhibition there.

2001
In 2001, too, Gönül Sen-Menzel was represented at the Galerie Gerda Türke.

Press Coverage about Gönül Sen-Menzel

• “Room for Imagination” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “Colorful Pictures of Happiness and New Love” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “A Balloon Rises from the Vivid Colors” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• “Gönül Sen: Pictures 2000. Galerie Gerda Türke, Dortmund” · Exhibition Notice · Coolibri
• “Picture Series: Ideas in Rows” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• ““Images of People” Beneath Layers of Lacquer” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “New Pictures by Gönül Sen” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “Large Formats, Rich Colors” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• “A Colorful Potpourri at Galerie Türke” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• “Plants and Landscape in the Light of Painting” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “Colorful Passion on a Bread Bag” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “Summer Exhibition at Galerie Türke” · Photo Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “A Summery Retrospective” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• “Retrospective Bets on Diversity” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “Pictures and Sculptures Like a Colorful Summer Bouquet” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “Thoughts on Wallpaper” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “Sen’s Painted-Over Sample Books” · Exhibition Notice · Westfälische Rundschau
• “Thoughts in Sample Books” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “Gallery Shows Heads and the Absurd from Its Collection” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “The Gallery’s Artists at Türke” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “Ten Artists Exhibit Simultaneously at Gallerist Gerda Türke’s” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• “Dortmund’s Galerie Türke Shows Works by Gönül Sen” · Photo Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “Small Artist, Large Landscapes” · Exhibition Report · City-Anzeiger Dortmund
• “Painter Gönül Sen Assembles Landscapes from Many Single Pictures” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• ““Boundless Thinking” in Red” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “A Turkish Painter with a Quick Brushstroke” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “People of the City” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
• “States of Mind in Color Tensions” · Exhibition Report · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “Turkish Painters at the Kunst-Kabinett” · Exhibition Notice · Ruhr Nachrichten
• “An Exhibition of Contrasts at the “Kleines Kunst-Kabinett”” · Exhibition Report · Westfälische Rundschau
• “Grief and Beauty in Pictures” · Exhibition Report · Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

All exhibitions at a glance: Exhibitions of Gönül Sen-Menzel