Neset Gunal
Bio
Neşet Günal was born in Nevşehir in 1923. He worked in Nurullah Berk and Sabri Berkel in the Painting Department of Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts (currently known as Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Fine Arts). He attracted the attention of Leopold Levy and graduated from Painting Department of the Academy with a first rank in 1946. He had met with Nuri İyem, Turgut Zaim and Avni Arbaş in these painting studios and had been influenced by them. His socio-realistic tone has been shaped by these influences. After, going to Paris in 1948, he first worked in Andre Lhote and then in Leger studios. During 1950-54 he studied fresco in Paris Fine Arts Higher Education Academy. Then he returned to Istanbul and joined the Faculty of Fine Arts Academy. He received a French government grant and went back to Paris to work on stained glass and tapestry. He became a studio instructor at the Academy in 1964. Then Head of the Painting department in 1975-1980. During his stay in Paris he was influenced by the Leger’s understanding of figures. Upon his return to Istanbul he merged these influences with the traditional eastern understanding and concentrated on figures. Günal’s paintings defies the commonly accepted and challenges the model, traces identity over talent, as a matter of fact whatever he has produced in the name of art is a product of his personality. In Günal’s paintings, “Woman of Ear of Grain”, “Scarecrow”, “ Doorsteps”, or the “Wall”, when one examines his group of two or three figures, one’s poverty can easily be observed in the arid land and the ruins, portrayed in the stockpiled stone walls. When Günal is painting a Wall Picture he begins with construing the figures and composition on with a pencil, then colors the drawings, and resolves the color scheme on paper. From the perspective of shape, due to Günal’s proximity to cubists and Leger, in all his paintings one can see the prints from nature and from parts of Middle Anatolian life where he grew up. This point of view he has painted the region with socio-realistic approach and with a social message. In 1969 the 30th State Painting and Sculptor Contest Günal was awarded first prize with his work “Blind Hasan’s Son”. He received the Sedat Simavi Foundation Visual Arts Award and has participated in many national and international exhibitions. He passed away in Istanbul, 2002.