Burhan Dogancay

Istanbul, Ankara, Paris, and New York are the cities that shaped the art of Burhan Doğançay (1929–2013). In 1963, while still working as a diplomat, Doğançay discovered a wonderful abstract painting on New York’s 86th Street: a building wall with the peeled-off remains of a poster. This wall manifested special poetry of its very own, and he eventually rendered it as a painting.

It was with such Urban Walls that the Turkish-American artist went on to achieve international fame. In over 100 cities worldwide, he proceeded to photograph building walls and facades that he also reproduced in works on paper, employing the most diverse materials and techniques. His drawings, gouaches, collages, and fumages reproduce informational signs and numbers on the walls and also show fragments of advertisements, event posters, and graffiti. For Doğançay, these functioned as mirrors on a society in the way that they documented the respective zeitgeist and political climate. And he would also use these works to develop his more abstract calligraphic series Ribbons from the 1970s onward.

In 2015, the Albertina received a generous donation of around 60 works on paper created by the artist between 1963 and 2011. Now, as part of the exhibition LOOK! New Acquisitions, a selection of these and a catalogue are being introduced to the public.