Gönül Sen-Menzel: A Late Artist as a Role Model

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Volkhoven. The death of the artist Gönül Sen-Menzel a few months ago came suddenly and shocked many people in Cologne’s art scene.

On Saturday, a memorial exhibition in her studio on the former school grounds on Volkhovener Weg will commemorate the Turkish-German painter. With boundless creativity, Gönül Sen-Menzel, born in Turkey in 1949, developed an extremely color-intense pictorial language that fascinated many of her colleagues. Over the past 25 years, Sen-Menzel had a formative influence on many artists as a teacher, mentor and role model.

Art lovers in the north of Cologne valued her studio as a meeting place. The conversations held there gave rise to many impulses for the art scene, such as the “Kunst(T)räume” project for the City Center in Chorweiler or the dance-and-painting events on Pariser Platz.

Gönül Sen-Menzel first studied art at the Teachers’ College in Istanbul. After moving to Germany, she completed further studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. For a long time she worked as an art teacher, wrote children’s books and exhibited in more than 200 galleries.

The memorial exhibition in her studio will present a small survey of her work, including Sen-Menzel’s last paintings, created shortly before her death. Also taking part is the international artists’ group Költür, which Gönül Sen-Menzel founded in Cologne in 1983 and which regularly organized exhibitions, workshops and art markets. The accompanying program also includes music and live painting. (jk)