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Pioneer of Conceptual Essence Narrative Expressionism (CENE)
Contemporary Turkish Master Artist
Grand Artist Award Winner
First Turkish Female Naval Painter
MFA in Painting
Göknil Gümüş Sungurtekin: From Expressionism to CENE
Before developing Conceptual Essence Narrative Expressionism (CENE), Göknil Gümüş Sungurtekin’s artistic practice was deeply rooted in expressionism. Her early work explored German Expressionism, Psychological Art, Primitive Art, Symbolic Art, and the Philosophy of Existence. These explorations, grounded in lived experiences, dreams, memories, and emotional intensity, provided the foundation for her later creation of CENE, a unique artistic and pedagogical philosophy that integrates emotional depth, conceptual thinking, and personal narrative.
Göknil’s early art focuses on moments of awareness, intuition, and psychological introspection. Life, for her, is composed of precious moments and memories that evoke meaning, passion, and excitement. Imagination and desire are amplified in her work—unexpected, playful, and often humorous—reflecting the spontaneity of human experience. Her subjects encompass anxiety, fear, joy, sadness, pain, enthusiasm, existential and subconscious narratives, as well as female energy, self-worth, balance, and mystical or quantum concepts.
Through introspection and research, Göknil painted her own life and dreams in composite, imaginative forms. Her work is characterized by expressive, vibrant, and instantaneous use of color and form, revealing both emotional and intellectual dimensions. For her, painting is an existential act, a disciplined engagement with her inner world that allows her to explore the mind, soul, and heart while remaining fully present in the moment. Her art embodies a spiritual and essential expression that is both sincere and psychologically resonant. The mystical intention of her early work can be summarized in her own words: “Who knows their own essence knows their Rab. Whatever you seek, search within yourself.”
This early expressionist practice laid the groundwork for CENE. By combining the emotional intensity of expressionism with conceptual rigor and narrative depth, Göknil evolved a framework that transcends traditional artistic boundaries. CENE represents the culmination of her introspective journey, offering both her own artistic evolution and a pedagogical model that guides students in discovering their inner artistic voice.
Her approach emphasizes individual perception, subjective experience, and the transformation of personal memory and emotion into visual form. Through this evolution, her work moves from the exploration of raw emotional expression toward the conceptual and existential clarity that defines CENE.
Art Concepts and Reports (Before CENE- 1996-2015)
Göknil Gümüş Sungurtekin's understanding of art and art concepts-report: 8.5. Contemporary Expressionist and New Expressionist Tendencies-Examples from Young Generation Artists 8.5.1. Göknil Gümüş (b. 1977) graduated from Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty in 2000. She completed her master's degree at Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department. Göknil Gümüş emphasizes an Expressionism-centered understanding in her statements, where she tries to place her own understanding of art in her period. Her expressionism is selfish and emphasizes her own experiences and testimonies of private life: ''Evolution is the development of young artists in the context of expressionism in Turkish painting after 1980 and where am I in this development? ''
'' We call those who are amateurs, children, mentally ill, drug addicts, primitive-naive painters who do not know the existence of the Expressionism movement, as Expressionists. The emphasis here is on expressing art and expressionism from the heart. Expressionist art is not shown, even if the purpose seems to reveal color, style, exuberance, explosion, confusing, traumatic, or irony. This is just a result.
When I talk about my own expressionism, my expressionism, I am talking directly about my psychological and artistic process. My art is an individual, subjective art. Like all Expressionists, I have experienced, influenced, seen, imagined, internalized, now I share with you to activate your perception, awareness, thought and emotion. This is what I can say socially as I present my work to the audience. This is the social aspect of my art. I don't know if my art is about society, my trauma, my pain, my sincerity, my enthusiasm, my ideas and intuitions about society. I know how to exist, how can I be myself?
Art is my way of being. It is the action that makes me question my existence and allows me to live the moments I am. A sincere, original, free, sincere, meaningful and conscious creation - production process. Trying to be myself...
My art criterion is whether my art is 'the same thing', 'the more 'same thing', the better art'. I think 'good painting' or 'good art' is my inner dynamics, my inner disciplines compel me to this, my eye wants to see it this way and it is built on the 'right' that comes from my solution. If I could keep my energy high and stick to what's coming from me, I could do what seems good, right, and beautiful. The setup of my paintings, the composition of colors, the brightness and intensity of colors, I am tired, but so is my mind. There is the mathematics, the mathematics of inner necessity. That arm, that limb, it's like it's exaggerated, bent, or amateurish, because I think that's the effect of my expression. Fast, powerful, but I need to be controlled in my own way. As I drive the colour, your breath, the trembling of your hand, the movement, the distance between the canvas, the consistency of the paint, the preservation, my body movement, enthusiasm, courage, energy, mood, passion… I have to control everything. The starting points of my art are different. The things that I think affect me, my life, experiences, nostalgic moments, sometimes anger, pain ... The things that I find meaning, the facts ... The things I wonder, the things that attract me are my mind.
Göknil Gümüş Sungurtekin is an expressionist artist. Therefore, her art is associated with "German Expressionism", sincere art, "Psychological Art", "Primitive Art", "Symbolic Art" and the Philosophy of Existence. Her artistic subjects and concepts are often based on moments and memories she lived and dreamed of. Life is intuitive, as precious as moments and memories that make her feel meaning, excitement, passion ... Imagination and wishes intensified, How it should be or unexpected and mockingly, moments full of humor and energy ... Vacation, solution, aphorisms, proposition, inference, conclusion includes moments, memories, and thoughts.
”(Demirbaş, 2015)
Istanbul Kemerburgaz University, Institute of Social Sciences, Art and Design Department, Announced Stories in Turkish Painting After 1980, Ugur Demirbas, Master's Thesis, Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Cevat Demir, Istanbul, 2016.
In this thesis, Ugur Demirtas also benefited from Artist Göknil Gümü Sungurttekin's master's thesis "Expressionism in Turkish Painting 2005".
(T.R Marmara University Fine Arts Institute Painting Department, Expressionism in Contemporary Turkish Painting , Göknil Gümüs, Prof. Dr. Cevat Demir, Istanbul, 2005)
T.R. Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Institute Of Social Siences Department of Art History Western Art and Comtemporary Art Program Between 1975-2005 ''Total Exhbitions ''And Conceptionalization In Turkey's Art Production , Prepared by Solmaz Bunultay Advisor: Prof. Dr. Semra GERMANER ISTANBUL–2008
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