Lot 67: Erol Akyavas (Turkish, 1932-1999)

Erol Akyavas (Turkish, 1932-1999)
Untitled
signed and dated 'Erol 57' (upper right)
oil on canvas
70 x 47¾in. (177.8 x 121.3cm.)
Painted in 1957

Private collection, by whom acquired directly from the artist in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1957.
Anonymous sale, Wolf's Auction Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, 1989.
Acquired from the above sale by the current owner.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, CLEVELAND, OHIO
This lot offered for sale is subject to a 5% import duty on the importation value levied at the time of collection/shipment within the UAE.
Erol Akyavas's fine art education began with Cubism, when from 1951 to1953 he studied with Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul. Following this he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, then with André Lhote and Fernand Léger in France. In 1954 he went to the USA to study architecture, but continued to paint, influenced by the Tachists and Expressionists. Each of these movements emphasizes the importance of the subconscious mind, and this tendency remained with Akyavas throughout his artistic career, through his many styles and periods. He maintained this spontaneity in his work. His compositions were unplanned, but underpinned by his mastery of colour, texture and detail.

The present work, an important example of his early abstract period, combines various elements of the above, especially his engagement with both Cubism and architecture. The floating planes resemble primitive buildings, with openings resembling doorways and windows. Although the shapes are highly abstracted certain aspects of composition recall the conventions of Turkish and Iranian miniatures. The picture is treated as an upright surface with objects described by flat or patterned areas of colour and positioned within the pictorial space from the bottom upwards, so that those at the top are appear furthest from the viewer. The circular placement of the elements is another feature common to these miniatures.

The folkloric features in this painting- the rustic shapes and their almost kilim-like distribution and colouring- are offset by the curious structures seen within them. These engimatic forms resemble at once both molecular models and metal structures such as scaffolding or pylons. Both carry technological connoatations, but throw up questions of scale.