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With a focus on a series of issues such as migration, localness, cultural difference and gender in her paintings, installations and video-performances, painter, art director, and contemporary artist Gülsün Karamustafa has been granted the Roswitha Haftmann Prize 2021.
Announcing the prize winner in a written statement, the Board of the Switzerland-based Roswitha Haftmann Foundation has said, "Gülsün Karamustafa receives Europe's best endowed art award from the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation." The statement has briefly read:
"Karamustafa, whose work spans multiple genres including painting, installation, video and performance, is one of Turkey's leading artists. She is inspired by the aesthetic of Byzantine icons and reverse glass painting, but breaks with the traditions of canonical art.
As one of the most artistically and indeed politically compelling voices of our time,' so the Board of the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation, 'Gülsün Karamustafa has more than earned the Roswitha Haftmann Prize.'
"Medyanın Belleği" (The Memory of the Media), 2005
The award will be presented to the artist with a prize-giving ceremony to be held in Zurich, Switzerland on December 3, 2021.
Karamustafa has been the 20th artist granted the award which has the highest monetary support for visual arts in Europe.
"Poster için Resim" (Picture for Poster) - 1977 1 May
About Gülsün Karamustafa
The foundation has introduced the artist in following words:
"Born in Ankara in 1946, Gülsün Karamustafa studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, where she still lives and works.
"Her career began in the 1970s and is an early contribution to the societal debate around migration, feminism, gender and the legacy of colonialism that is more relevant today than ever before.
"Her stance, which also draws on her own experiences, provoked the Turkish government. Her passport was revoked, rendering her unable to travel abroad for 16 years. In 1981 she obtained her doctorate from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, where she had been lecturing since 1975, with a thesis on 'The Interaction Between Painting and Poster'.
"Thereafter, she devoted herself entirely to her art, with great success: her works have been acquired by prestigious institutions including Tate Modern, London, the Guggenheim, New York, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, and major private collections.
"She attracted further attention with solo exhibitions in Europe and the US and participation in biennials in Istanbul, São Paulo, Singapore, Kiev and Seville. Since the turn of the millennium, Gülsün Karamustafa has inspired an entire generation of artists to contribute their works to a socio-political discourse. Her own commitment to that debate has earned her accolades including the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands."
About the award
The Prize was originally the initiative of Roswitha Haftmann (1924–1998), whose Foundation has awarded it since 2001 to a living artist who has created an oeuvre of outstanding quality. The winner is chosen by the Foundation Board, which includes the directors of the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and the Kunsthaus Zürich as well as other members co-opted by the Board. (AÖ/SD)
