Yüksel Arslan

Yüksel Arslan, studied at the History of Art Institute of the Istanbul University. In 1961 he settled to Paris, where he opened his first solo show a year later. Instead of giving different titles to his works, he combined the word “art” with the “ure” suffix in French (like in “peinture” or “écriture”) to create the word “arture” and painted his “artures” by plants, herbs, stone, soil, and at times even blood and urine. In 1964, Arslan’s “artures” were included in the exhibition entitled “The Origins, History and Relationships of Surrealism” organized by the Galerie Charpentier, and viewed today as one of the most important exhibitions of the history of Surrealism. On the eve of 1968, he came to Turkey where he stayed for two years and opened exhibitions. Returning to Paris in 1969, he concentrated his reading on works by Marx and Engels and in 1975, he completed his series which involved “The Capital” drawings.This was the first of his series that are compiled in books, followed in the 1980’s by the “Influences”, the “Auto-Artures” and the “Human”. Apart from Paris, his works were exhibited in various French cities, among them Sarcelles, Rennes and Nice, as well as at the Vienna Modern Arts Museum and the Prague National Gallery. The final volume of the “Human” was published in 1999. Arslan, considering this series as his “will”, continues working on it at his studio in Paris.