Selected Works

Ekim 20, 2020

Selected Works

I conceive that artistic creation is a life-time progression of self-discovery and self-awareness, that's why I decided to not only talk about one painting, yet couple of paintings together from the series 'Silent City'.

Returning to Safe Base, 2019, oil on canvas, 221 x 143 cm

'Returning to Safe Base' is the first painting that I have done in my 'Silent City' series. I consider the title as the heart of the artworks since it is the only verbal language that the painter can communicate with the viewer, thus to be starting, what is a safe base? According to John Bowlby the pioneer psychologist of the Attachment Theory (1973), safe/secure base is a safe heaven, safe place to be provided through the caregiver to the child when the child is upset or anxious. Bowlby’s attachment model consists of three attachment styles which are secure, anxious-ambivalent and avoidant style and according to the theory I am in the anxious-ambivalent style category. Connectively with the attachment theory, this painting for me was displaying a closed space just as the mother's womb, a woman who is seeking reliance and confidence, and a shy, childish attitude as being hide under a drapery. This is the only painting that I have ever drawn a human figure, later on my curiosity of bodilessness and spacelessness begun.

The Promenade, 2019, oil on canvas, 147 x 147 cm

Embodied, 2019, oil on canvas, 195 x 150 cm

I have painted 'The Promenade' and 'Embodied' in the same period, which had an importance for the upcoming paintings. 'The Promenade' has an other story beside the drapery paintings; geometrical shapes represents the negative spaces between the buildings while we are walking in the street and look above, in other words they are the skies and clouds. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was an inspiration in terms of applying translucidity for overlapping geometrical shapes. I remember myself saying that 'the sky is not giving me any feeling of eternity, I feel more being stuck in this sphere called the earth.''. Back then I was not really aware of my claustrophobical situation, yet today I can interpret this phrase as a sign of being both agoraphobic.

How did I end up with draperies again? While I was painting 'The Promenade', I recognized the smoky, organic white shape indeed represented the drapery itself. This recognition let me to reveal the human figure, and focus more on the material itself. Not only I revealed the figure, additionally minimized the space and revealed the perspective. I was studying on colors and looking in David Hockney's paintings as references.

The Blue Temperament, 2019, oil on canvas, 150 x 178 cm

Alike a shell, statical, almost as an icon of Saint Marie; ''The Blue Temperament'' was the painting that I understood the fact of there is no need to include any human figure to transmit facial expressions and emotions. I took reference for the colors 'Le Doux Pays' by Puvis de Chavannes.

Embodied, 2019, oil on canvas, 110 x 236 cm

'The Delight of the Fall' was the first painting that I approach to the drapery as a total abstraction. Later on I had started to produce smaller size paintings, the main interrogation for me was to discover doing portraits without faces, translucidity of the material itself, concreteness to abstraction and movement.