ERWIN BOHATSCH in Istanbul

One of the leading artists of Austrian painting, Erwin Bohatsch, will be presenting his audience with an exhibition to be held between April 1-27, 2004. In the exhibition prepared in collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Center and the Millî Reasürans Art Gallery, selected works from the artist's recent works on paper will be exhibited with a German catalogue.

The artist, born in 1951, studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He became known with the exhibitions he opened in various cities in Austria and Germany, as well as in New York, Oslo and Zurich.

Erwin Bohatsch creates his paintings by creating layers on top of each other in a very slow process, with an almost transparent transparency. The structure of the painting emerges during this process with elegant contrasts between horizontal and vertical layers that evoke an architectural structure. As a result, the mysterious, light color layers and depth that do not condense into a certain form, the silence that seems to hang in the air, create, in Erwin Bohatsch’s words, “a kind of energy field” or “energy flow” between the artist and the audience.

In this flow between the artist and the audience, the paintings provoke the viewer’s richness of perspective more than “meaning”. This is an “open” understanding of art; an understanding that prefers to present rather than interpret or be a means of understanding.

While Bohatsch’s paintings offer a formal feast to the audience, they also create a space for them, allowing them to “see”. This space indicates the freedom of the audience in front of the painting they are watching, and at the same time shows the artist’s trust in his audience.

The Erwin Bohatsch exhibition offers unmissable opportunities to wander through the mysterious layers of the painting and to use the freedom of looking.

Erwin Bohatsch’s exhibition can be viewed at the Millî Reasürans Art Gallery between April 1-27, 2004.