30 Apr - 23 May 2015
Erdoğan Zümrütoğlu's work is significant because it causes a massive impact on the spectator, which goes beyond the nonchalance of the contemporary art world. His mix of figuration and abstraction, as well as his interest to critically comment on issues of the immediate present, is rare these days. Zümrütoğlu's particular strength is that he never lets the paintings to be obtrusive, didactic or polemical. Here, great form and attractive aesthetic meets intelligent content. Due to the paintings' iconographic and compositional brokenness, the classical pictorial context is consciously denied by him. That is why it is possible to participate in the shaping of Zümrütoğlu's worlds of images. So, the spectator is activated and lured to abandon the passive attitude of the recipient. The artist succeeds in creating a contemporary oeuvre, which draws upon the accomplishments of late modernism while going beyond pure postmodern eclecticism. With its unique form, and its socio-political commitment, the works contribute to a renovation in the field of painting. This renovation is needed, because painting is in a crisis but it is not dead!*
*Marcus Graf
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