Immersed in a counter-artworld of activists and feminists throughout her youth, Yalter has been exhibited and celebrated within major institutions worldwide. Pink Tension (1969) exhibited in the Nucleo Storico, speaks to her early work with geometric abstraction, influenced by Russian Constructivism. She created the canvas in the seven-year period following her relocation to Paris in 1965, which Yalter remembers as one of seismic change with the May 1968 revolts, the strengthening of women’s liberation movements, and the Turkish “coup by memorandum”, which drove Yalter to refocus her practice onto the lived experience of political oppression and social marginalisation.
This is the first time the work of Nil Yalter is presented at Biennale Arte, and she is the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
—Sofia Gotti and Amanda Carneiro
