Yüksel Arslan

Yüksel Arslan was born in Istanbul in 1933. He started painting his environment: flowers, glasses, stones, bricks, coals and soap pieces in his childhood. He studied Art History at Istanbul University but discontinued his study to practice painting on his own time. Arslan had his first solo exhibition at the Maya Gallery in 1955. In 1961, he was invited to Paris to by Andre Breton and the art dealer Raymond Cordier, and he moved to Paris. During his stay in Paris, he produced the "Homunculus-cucus-palus", "Planus-phallus-micrococus" series.  He kept working on his “Artune” series in 1969 using the ancient methods of combining raw pigments with earth, oil, his blood, urine, saliva, and natural dyeing. In 1962 he had his third solo exhibition beside Raymond Cordier. It was followed by “Arture” series in Copenhagen and Berlin. After he exhibited 22 paintings in Frankfurt, Arslan went back to Paris and opened another “Arture” exhibition. In 1967 he came to Turkey and had his exhibitions in Ankara and Istanbul. In the same year he began painting the series of “Capital” (1967) having been inspired by the writings of Karl Marx. It was published in Paris in 1975. One of Arslan’s recent exhibitions was held at the Drawing Centre in New York, called "Visual Interpretations" curated by Brett Littman in 2008. Arslan′s works were also included in the "Modern and Beyond: 1950-2000" exhibition at Santral Istanbul in 2007-2008. He was inspired by the writings of Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. Arslan brought together the Western and Eastern traditions and deals with various subjects like psychology, erotism and the subconscious. It is possible to see the influence of Eastern miniatures and Anatolian folklore such as the Karagöz and Hacivat (the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play) in his works. Arslan’s most famous series besides the above mentioned ones are "Influences", "Autoartures", "L’Homme" and "Nouvelles Influences". Arslan currently lives and works in Paris.

Reference:  artnet.com; arkitera.com.tr; thy.com; edebiyatsanat.com; Sotheby’s London Contemporary Art Turkish, 4 March 2009 (London 2009), p. 79 and 99.