Painter Yalçın Gökçebağ's exhibition titled "The Past Lasts Long" opened at Istanbul’s Kibele Art Gallery on April 26. The retrospective exhibition, which features works by the artist from different periods, will run until July 23.

Gökçebağ had the opportunity to observe Anatolian life, people and nature while he was teaching in different places of Turkey for years. Although the artist has been working as a lecturer at Middle East Technical University's (METU) Fine Arts Department since 1990, his observations of Anatolian land have always had a lasting effect on his art.

Gökçebağ takes viewers on a magical journey through his canvases by absorbing the beauty he witnessed. He entrusts a cultural heritage to future generations by combining the vanishing rural life with the power of his art in his works that he has produced throughout his artistic life of more than 60 years.

Writer and curator Ibrahim Karaoğlu desribes the art of Gökçebağ: "His journey in each painting is to his childhood. His childhood is his compass against the unhappiness imposed by modern cities that overshadow the childhood paradise that has become rich with the diversity of different life forms. In each of his paintings, the roads wander through the traces of the past, in old sounds, colors, nuances and memories. His memories and dreams are intertwined in his paintings. He rebuilds the magical paradise of his childhood."