Gönül Sen-Menzel: Colorful Passion on a Bread Bag

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“Color is my weapon, my strength. And I love it.”

So says the artist Gönül, and it is impossible to overlook in her works. “For other painters technique or subject matter is important; for me it isn’t,” she explains.

That doesn’t mean she shows nothing. She depicts plants, people and landscapes, but these motifs are not what makes her pictures. Delicate, plant-like growths appear incredibly aggressive, because throughout a whole series of pictures, garish color combinations of pink, orange and poison green leap out at the viewer. These colors attack without hurting. Gönül loves to paint passionately, passionately fast and passionately much. This means that every picture, however small, every large painting, every painted-over piece of wallpaper or magazine, and every invitation card she designs herself is out of date after a short time.

“I am constantly searching. And without experiments you can’t find anything,” says Gönül. She usually needs no “special equipment” to paint. She works with what she has: felt-tip pen on a bread bag, ballpoint pen on a plastic lid or watercolor on book pages.

Her latest project is the focus of the exhibition at Galerie Türke: during her one-week stay in Belgium, she created 150 works. They are collages on Belgian newspaper, nudes and landscapes in mixed media. Gönül mercilessly places acrylic, watercolor and oil paints side by side on the surface, creating fascinating textures and harmonies of color. “My Belgian friend George Herrgods, who is an artist and a pastor, provided me with so much material that I couldn’t be stopped.” Viewers won’t miss it. The exhibition opens on Sunday (September 1) at 11 a.m. (bos)

Galerie Türke, Johannesstraße 8 a: Paintings by Gönül, Sept. 1–Oct. 13, Tue–Fri 3 to 6 p.m., Sat 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Original caption: In her latest works, the artist Gönül also shows plants.