By Heidi Trautmann

‘The past is a cool country within me……..I just don’t know where I froze…’ these lines are part of a poem which Hüseyin uses in his catalogue to explain himself. A key which helps the viewer to read his paintings. It helps more than the text of Ümit Inatci which implies so many intellectual sideways that everybody gets confused.

It was one of those evenings in Nicosia which never stop to fascinate me, in the area around the mosque with its medieval atmosphere, the early evening sky in soft pastel colours, in the narrow roads the clic clac of feet, echoing along; the Naci Talat Peace and Guest House just around Hasder Folk Art Foundation, is lit and the noise of many voices coming through the open door tells you that many guests have already arrived. A lovely place, beautifully and carefully renovated, a perfect place to have art exhibition and cultural events.

In the inner courtyard well known Hüseyin Özinal is surrounded by guests, HE Dervis Eroglu and some members of the Naci Talat Association, his daughter, who also opens the exhibition.

I know Hüseyin for many years, from the Art Aware events, and also as theatre designer of the State Theatre. He is a very sensitive soft man and to me his paintings are an outcry, the hot outbreak of his soul, liberation, statement.  In some of his new works the light becomes more evident, the rage less, a softer red, forms are building up in the jungle of darkness; a balance recognizable. A new addition are his experiments with handmade paper pulp kneaded into waves and forms, like a view of the world from high above.

A beautiful exhibition where the viewer has to listen to his own reaction, the answer to the impact the art work has on him or her.

The exhibition is open until Nov 4;