{"id":124252,"date":"2025-02-11T12:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T11:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=124252"},"modified":"2025-02-11T14:57:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T13:57:33","slug":"gokhun-baltaci-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2025\/02\/11\/gokhun-baltaci-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131: page after page after page\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131, G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131, G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131. When repeated three times with a firm voice, it feels as though a door to a world of secrets might open. This is the world of an artist from Turkey who has mastered the art of oil pastels, using them to reveal the unwritten pages of his inner novel. The first thing that strikes you when encountering an exhibition by  Baltac\u0131\u2014a cohesive body of works displayed with intent\u2014is that the images seem to whisper to one another, creating the impression of passages from a story, even though the full narrative remains elusive. The same table appears multiple times, as does the cassette tape resting on it; the garden that serves as the backdrop for one portrait takes center stage in the next work; the characters communicate across rooms, confined within the generally horizontal, and therefore cinematic, frame of the paper they inhabit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131, Untitled, 2024, oil pastel on paper. Courtesy of the artist, kaufmann repetto Milan \/ New York and Galeri Nev, Ankara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When asked about the reason behind his work, G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131 answered, \u201cA horse runs, a fish swims, and I paint.\u201d G\u00f6khun has been painting since kindergarten, his obsession for art growing ever since. Perhaps it is thanks to a caring teacher who, noticing his extraordinary sense of color, once pulled his mother aside and shared a prophecy: if G\u00f6khun ever expressed a desire to become an artist, she should definitely encourage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131 grew up in Ankara, living in the same house where he was born until last year when he moved to the Cit\u00e9 internationale des arts, Paris. The connection between his paintings and the personality he imbues into objects may stem from this sense of rootedness. The table, the cigarette pack, the comb, the flute, the chestnut, the cocaine strips laid out on a Soutine monograph\u2014these are not mere anecdotes but symbolic presences. G\u00f6khun\u2019s use of color is not descriptive but narrative. In this way, his objects take on a role similar to those in Orhan Pamuk\u2019s\u00a0Museum of Innocence<\/em>\u00a0(here\u2019s the link<\/a> to our interview with the writer). Meanwhile, the atmosphere of secrecy in his work rather evokes\u00a0My Name Is Red\u00a0<\/em>by the same author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131, Untitled, 2024, oil pastel on paper. Courtesy of the artst, kaufmann repetto Milan \/ New York and Galeri Nev, Ankara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I asked G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131 what he paints beyond the individual scenes, his answer was disarming: \u201cThey actually depict the daily maneuvers I must undertake to escape the sense of guilt that accompanies my morning awakening.\u201d He refers to the giant from Miyazaki\u2019s Spirited Away<\/em>: \u201cI see the giant of guilt, and I strive to avoid it.\u201d To do so, he devotes his entire day to his studio. He wakes up, sips his coffee, and works with relentless diligence for eight or nine hours. At a certain point, he sets aside his pastels, washes his hands\u2014frequently used to spread or compress the color\u2014and heads out to meet friends at the same pub. \u201cOnly the devil works at night\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131, Untitled, 2021, pastel on paper, cm. 100 x 70. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These friends often reappear in his paintings, serving as interpreters of that unspecified narrative. Yet in G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131\u2019s semantic universe, the most significant presence remains that of G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131 himself. His works are photographic\u2014not because of the extraordinary density of the pictorial material, which would be impossible to achieve with a brush\u2014but for this very reason. Beyond the scene, the subject, or even the framing itself, it is the artist\u2019s intention that takes the center stage. The true focus lies in the enigma posed by each image, with its clues and omissions. The artist leads us by the hand through an uncanny journey, igniting our curiosity, page after page after page\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Images by G\u00f6khun Baltac\u0131 whisper to one another, creating passages from a story, even though the full narrative remains elusive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1793],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-to-be-discovered"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124496,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124252\/revisions\/124496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}