Neşet Günal Retrospective Drawing Exhibition

A retrospective exhibition of Neşet Günal’s drawings can be viewed at the Milli Reasürans Art Gallery between April 17 and June 17, 2001. This exhibition will be repeated at the Ankara Gallery Selvin between October 4 and November 4, 2001.

The drawings in the exhibition range from Neşet Günal’s work in Paris in 1948 to the present day. A book covering the artist’s drawings covering the years 1948-2001 was prepared for this exhibition.

The flawlessness seen in Neşet Günal’s works reveals that he thought and planned every single point in his drawings down to the smallest detail. As in the artist’s paintings, the theme draws attention in his drawings.

The artist states that while he uses drawing as a constructive and founding element in his works, he adopts color as a supporting element.

Mehmet Ergüven says the following about Neşet Günal’s drawings: “For Günal, drawing is the homeland – the only place where he has his feet on the ground is terra firma. Therefore, it is inevitable that drawing will also receive its share of the principle of economy. Günal calculates with lines like a stonemason; it is as if selection has slowly turned into carving.

Neşet Günal, who was as old as the Republic, came to Istanbul in 1939 and became a student of Léopold-Lévy at the Academy. He graduated from the Academy in 1946 and passed the European exam. In 1948, he went to Paris and received specialization training in fresco and wall painting at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts. He continued his painting studies at the Fernand Léger workshop. In 1954, he worked as an assistant at the Academy. He applied a 30-square-meter fresco technique wall painting at Ankara Hacettepe Hospital and a 22-square-meter fresco painting at Istanbul University Faculty of Science. In 1963, he went to Paris for the second time with a scholarship from the French Government, and worked with stained glass and Gobelin pictorial carpet techniques. He became an associate professor at the Academy in 1969 and a professor in 1970. He served as Head of the Painting Department between 1975-80 and as Dean between 1980-82. He retired in 1983.

Neşet Günal, who was selected as the “Honorary Artist” of the year at the 10th Tüyap Art Fair, continues to paint.