Kunst am Mittelrhein // Regionale // Von Denise Steger //14.9.2014

Die Galeristin Angelika Ehrhardt-Marschall, Leiterin des „Kunsthaus Rheinlicht“ schätzt sich besonders glücklich, die Werke des international erfolgreichen, in der Türkei geborenen und in Köln lebenden Malers Ali Zülfikar ausstellen zu können – hierzu gehören eine große Anzahl meisterhafter Porträtzeichnungen in großem Format auf Leinwand und Büttenpapier sowie Malereien mit traditionell türkischer, auf Pflanzenbasis beruhender Wollfarbe, deren Herstellungsprozess Ali Zülfikar weiterentwickelte und deren besondere Qualität die Materialität und die Struktur seiner Werke bestimmt.

Das höchste Ziel eines Porträtisten, die Seele, das Leben eines Menschen zu verstehen, zu erarbeiten und sichtbar zu machen, gelingt dem Künstler auf ganz besondere Weise. Vor allem die in erdfarbenen Tönen gehaltenen Bildnisse alter Menschen entwickeln unter seiner Hand eine Intensität und Ausdrucksstärke, die den Betrachter emotional berühren. Diese Menschen strahlen trotz oder gerade aufgrund ihrer Betagtheit Ruhe, Gelassenheit, Weisheit und Würde aus; sie blicken auf die Erfahrungen eines Daseins zurück, was sich in ihren Falten, den rissigen Strukturen der Haut und all ihren Einkerbungen äußert, doch ihre Blicke – teils wach und ausgesprochen lebendig, teils meditativ – und ihre Körperhaltungen, die in einer harmonischen Strichführung eingebunden sind, weisen auf eine Erhabenheit, die zu einer neuen, positiven Interpretation des Themas „Alter“ führt.

Ali Zülfikar ist ein kaum erreichter Meister seines Fachs – auch in seinen Gemälden entwickelt er detaillierte Strukturen, die seinen Darstellungen auf Weitsicht eine starke Präsenz verleihen, und vom Nahen betrachtet die intensive technische Arbeit, im Spannungsverhältnis von Raumtiefe und Proportionen, in der Schichtungen der Farben, ihrem Aufbrechen und dem entsprechender reliefartige Wirkungen, hervor scheinen lassen…”



Ali Zülfikar, 1970 born in Yavuzeli-Tr

1989-95 Studies at the Firat University in Elazig with Prof. Memduh Kuzay, Cemal Arslan

1992 until now freelance artist lives in Cologne and in Turkey since 1997 in Germany since 1992 free sheep that artists

Ali Zülfikar, born in 1970 in Turkey, studied at the Firat University. When we look at his pictures, the first thought is: A masterpiece. About 160 international exhibitions worldwide as well as numerous films about his life and his art are already known to us. Zülfikars works now decorate the Contemporary Art Fair in Paris Cutlog 2013. There are portraits full of power and strength which are held in black and white tones. Zülfikar treats their structures with a special essence that is used in movement of natural kilim dye. With this type of design he makes the image surfaces cracked.

The contours are breaking and it creates fissures and gorges. Those effectsrealise in his portraits the faces of older people: A true viewing experience! Zülfikar provides credible the age rings of human life on display and demonstrates an aesthetic of mature existence: Graceful faces that proudly represent their scars and wounds and radiate wisdom.
A second issue is that Zülfikar is fascinated by trees. His formation of the branches, processed with the same cracks, provide a special magic here. A blood-red resinous tribe, whose bark is torn and worn, bears the title “A part of me”. The traces of color are like the colors of a storm, a force of nature that pulls us over.

A poetry in pictures with the feeling that the life force of the tree is inseparably connected with us. The symbiosis between humans and the world of plants describes his oeuvre. All his work is dedicated to the experience of existence. Older men and women are similar to tall trees that may show their age rings with majesty. The most outstanding portrait of an old woman seems to be one thing with a golden curtain, which acts as the background of the image.

At the same time, you may think that this area is a part of her hair. Fascinating is the creativity Zülfikars who can be completely lost in the faces of the human world. In addition to the large-scale paintings that repeatedly re-interpret the age issue and which are similar to lithographs, one picture jumps completely out of line, it’s the portrait and figurative painting. It doesn’t tie in with traditions but with a great sense of presence and a deep understanding of the three-dimensionality of space.

For a comprehensive flood of media images that acts predominantly in the two-dimensionality on us, we are literally littered, Zülfikars works are downright opposed to their spatial depth, which is a rare quality in painting today.

The process of life cannot stop in front of it – a bold but harmonious break in style. Zülfikar is like a painting philosopher, who is dedicated to the cycle of birth and death on more diverse way. Alberto Giacometti has described it as: “…It is the space that you dig to create the object and in turn the object creates the space. Is the space itself which is located between the model and the sculptor.” What does Giacometti mean with the space located between the model and the artist? A “space consciousness”? So it seems to me, because that is what Ali Zülfikar creates: a deep subtle visual space in a mysterious silence. He seems to have not only created that space between them (the artist) and his model but also newly discovered by the colors and techniques. But this space is not based exclusively on his painting works: This space is shown as an image of dreams and is created layer by layer out from the depths of the image, captured in perspective and at the same time becoming free. So I see Zülfikars painting, which arises out of itself and develops to their own color and structure by itself. I am also drawn into the spell of Zülfikars pictures: I cannot stop looking at them. The given light is green, cold, spherical and dramatically as if Zülfikar decided at times that there is no change and no turning back. We are connected with his figurative paintings that infuse the room. It becomes clearly with the structural quality of the painting that arises from such a mysterious sphere, slowly emerging from antiquity, from a forest, a time or of a dream. read less