BEDRİ BAYKAM EXHIBITION IN PARIS ‘THE VOYEUR OF HISTORY’ OPENS FEBRUARY 26

BEDRİ BAYKAM EXHIBITION IN PARIS  ‘THE VOYEUR OF HISTORY’ OPENS FEBRUARY 26 One of Turkey’s leading international artists Bedri Baykam will be showing his latest series ‘The Voyeur of History’ at the Lavignes-Bastille Gallery (27, rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris). The vernissage will be held February 26th and the show will be seen until March 24, 2013. Baykam has already shown several times at the same space since 1990. He’s a well known name for the Parisian art circles, having had several one-man shows in Paris. His latest apperance have been his show at the Pinacothéque de Paris (2010) together with Edvard Munch (Baykam having made an exhibition of the contemporary version of Munch) and his show at the Museum of the French Tennis Federation at the Stade Roland-Garros (2011). Both shows comprised works from Baykam’s lenticular works his famous 4-D’s. Baykam’s coming show in Paris will carry both samples from his 4D’s, as well as his recent canvas works from the last two years. BAYKAM’S 4-D WORKS Baykam has been working on these since 2007. Having worked long years on painterly transparencies (1998-99), digital transparencies (Girly Plots Series 2000-2), material transparencies (Lolitarte 2006-7), in 2007 he incorporated a synthesis of all these years on the lenticular surface and has created those 4-D’s. The 4-D’s have been shown besides Paris, in Istanbul, Ankara, London, Berlin, California, Shangai, Monaco and have attracted lots of praise and attention from the professionals of art as well as the media. BAYKAM’S NEW CANVASES, ‘THE VOYEUR OF HISTORY’ These large scale canvases at first glance seem to be quite close to his Neo-Expressionist works from the early 80’s. But in fact at a second reading one can see that those works are a synthesis of Baykam’s several periods. Collages from endless sources melt together with layers of paint. These works mature in much longer periods of time. Baykam labeled this series as ‘Voyeur of History’. He makes several references to old masters, Rubens, Picasso, Duchamp, Carracci, Andre Breton as he has always done several times since 1987. The catalog of the exhibition, has two essays the first one by Turkish critic and philosopher Hasan Bülent Kahraman, and the second one by Levent Çalıkoğlu, curator-in-chief of İstanbul Modern. Baykam is one of the spokesman and founder of the Artist Initiative in Turkey, that is drastically in opposition with the AKP Government’s policies.They take the defence together of all their intellectual, journalist and academician friends in prison for long years. (Baykam was almost stabbed to death in April 2011 by an Islamist who had been stalking him for a week. He was saved in extremis after a four hour operation.) President of the Turkish Plastic Arts Association (UPSD) a member of IAA/UNESCO International Art Associations, since 2006 and one of its founders in 1989, Baykam is also in the World and European Executive Committees of IAA. He writes for the Turkish leftist daily Cumhuriyet. For more info please contact: Galerie Lavignes-Bastille: 27 rue de Charonne 75011 Paris Tel: +33 147 00 88 18 galerie.lavignesbastille@noos.fr Baykam’s Assistant: Ms Öykü Eras +905417758135 oyku.piramid@gmail.com