“Illusion,” says Utku Varlık, “is a phenomenon that defines my painting.” Illusion, the title of his new show, is a tribute to the writers and poets who left their mark on him – Rilke, for example: “And what a melancholy beauty came to women when they were pregnant, and stood, their slender hands involuntarily resting on their big bodies which bore two fruits: a child and a death. And that tight, almost nourishing smile that took over their faces, didn’t it sometimes come from sensing that both were growing?” Or Baudelaire: “True reality is only in dreams”.
Included is a short film Varlık made with Necati Ayden in 1964 based on Rilke’s book The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
