The Drawing Center will present Yüksel Arslan: Visual Interpretations in the Drawing Room from April 18 through May 15, 2008. This exhibition of works by the Turkish-born, Paris-based artist, notable for both his unique process and provocative imagery, is Arslan’s first in the United States. Arslan was an active participant in the intellectual circles of early-1960s Paris that included Jean-Paul Sartre, André Breton, Roland Topor, and Jean Dubuffet. For the past sixty years, Arslan has been mining the depths of the unconscious mind, bringing together western and eastern aesthetics and philosophy in finely wrought works that he calls “Artures.” These drawings, highly personal interpretations of his extensive readings, are created through a laborious process he developed and perfected in 1955 which involves mixing raw pigments with his own saliva, blood, urine, and other organic materials like honey, earth, and egg whites which are worked and re-worked into the paper’s surface.

Culled from Arslan’s personal collection, the exhibition will feature a selection of 27 works on paper, spanning from 1958 to the present. The works will include representative pieces from the artist’s seven major series: Phallisme 2, Artures, Capital, Influences, Autoartures, L’Homme, and Nouvelles Influences. Each series comprises hundreds of drawings on subjects including schizophrenia, the eroticism of Marquis de Sade, Georges Bataille, and Antonin Artaud, as well as direct and indirect references to the artists, poets, writers, scientists, musicians, and philosophers who have influenced his thinking. Yüksel Arslan: Visual Interpretations is curated by Executive Director Brett Littman.