Yüksel Arslan

In this muted work, a series of geometric forms teeter on the edge of legibility. Yüksel Arslan’s materials are starkly physical; he has allowed them to pool and smudge on the sheet, suggesting three-dimensionality emerging on and from the work’s surface. Arslan typically made his own pigments with natural materials ranging from minerals and vegetable extracts to blood and urine.

Connected with French Surrealists, including André Breton, Arslan moved to Paris in 1961. He invented the word arture for this series based on other French words with the same suffix—such as peinture (painting) and écriture (writing)—to suggest a non-medium-specific work of art.