Gönül Sen-Menzel: States of Mind in Color Tensions

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Four months after her husband, the Turkish painter Gönül Sen is exhibiting at the Kleines Kunst-Kabinett on Große Heimstraße.

The 21 mostly large-format exhibits, painted in acrylic on canvas or red fabric, are predominantly an expression of great joie de vivre. Gönül Sen places many complementary colors in direct contrast to one another, developing color tensions that express freshness and intensity through the garish, unaltered grounds of the glowing red fabric.

Her motifs, in which Gönül Sen tries to trace the most varied states of mind, are taken from everyday reality. The pedestrian zone of the city of Cologne, where she lives, a children’s playground or Turkish local color in the portraits of her compatriots are the themes of her pictures.

These expressive, colorful pictures, mostly in primary colors, are complemented by delicate pictures drawn in pastel colors with fine lines on structures of color fields, such as the children’s faces, or by gloomy, melancholy works in muted, earthy tones.

The opening reception is on Sunday at 11 a.m. The exhibition can then be seen until April 29 on Thursdays between 5 and 7 p.m., Saturdays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (JG)

Original caption: Gönül Sen’s motifs, painted in acrylic on canvas, are an expression of great joie de vivre.