GÜNGÖR TANER

Born in Istanbul in 1941, Güngör Taner studied at the Painting Department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of Nurullah Berk and worked with Corneille at the Salzburg Summer Academy in 1971. As one of the important and defining figures of Turkish abstract painting, Taner has established a distinctive position in his art with the strong painterly language he has developed throughout his long artistic production. In the artist’s canvases, the concepts of light, space, speed, and rhythm form a determining structure; the pictorial surface becomes a dynamic field where energy and movement leave their traces. Taner approaches the act of painting not only as a formal construction but as a field of physical and mental concentration. Each brushstroke and paint stain developing on the surface finds its place within the composition through a controlled sense of intuition. The relationship he establishes between plan and chance, movement and balance, is one of the fundamental elements that show continuity in the artist’s paintings. Continuing to explore the possibilities of abstract painting, Taner has gained a distinctive and strong place in Turkish painting with the language he has built on the relationship between surface, light, and rhythm. The artist continues his work in his studio in Istanbul.