Gönül Sen-Menzel: Thoughts on Wallpaper

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Painted walls and wallpaper are nothing special. And wallpaper sample books are well known too.

But when Gönül Sen gets her hands on these thick catalogs, the ordinary becomes a work of art: a diary of temperamentally painted thoughts, luminous acrylic paint on different textured wallpapers. You ask yourself: which is the color of the wallpaper, and which that of the painting? The Turkish artist is showing five of these heavy books in a new exhibition at Galerie Türke. They are originals for “leafing through”, so to speak, and that is fun.

“I am hungry for color; a particular subject isn’t important,” explains the 45-year-old. And this becomes very clear here: six floor pictures (lots of bright red and radiant blue acrylic paint as well as gold car paint with sand, polystyrene and sawdust on large transport pallets) illustrate her joy in color. In the portraits of women on canvas, too, recognizable forms clearly take a back seat to spontaneous, experimental application of paint.

Striking in the ten related “concert pictures”, all created on a stage next to the orchestra playing music: fewer luminous tones, but many pastel shades instead. Gönül Sen: “Everything was so solemn, but I couldn’t paint only in black and white.” Fortunately – because the artist’s pictures and objects work above all through their successful, because very intense, color harmonies. (bos)

Gönül Sen: Paintings and Objects, Sept. 10 to Oct. 23 at Galerie Türke, Johannesstr. 8a, Thu 5–8:30 p.m., Sat 4–8:30 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Opening on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m.

Original caption: With her colorful floor pictures, painted on transport pallets, Gönül Sen wants to encourage viewers to look at painting not only when it is “hung up”.