Lot 68: Omer Uluc (Turkish, b. 1931)

Omer Uluc (Turkish, b. 1931)
Submarine and Battleship
signed and dated 'Omer 97' (on the reverse)
oil on panel
48 x 98½in. (121.5 x 250cm.)
Painted in 1997

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
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.
This brilliantly coloured work is one of the largest examples of the Ship and Submarine series painted by Omer Uluc since the mid 1980s.

For many years Omer Uluc spent half his time in Paris and the other half in his studio overlooking the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Whilst the movement of ships along the waters of the Bosphorus is mesmerizing, for a time during the mid-1980s, Uluc was just as fascinated by the passage of huge submarines along this intercontinental waterway. These sinister dark shapes, partly submerged, passing through from the Black Sea to the Sea of Mamara, make an awesome spectacle.

Both background and objects are treated as equals, with similar bold strokes and bright colours. There is no background as such- the ships, the sky and the sea all appear to be made of the same flowing, bubbling substance. Whilst the viewer intuits the identity of each of the components, visual evidence condraticts that expectation- each appears to be of the same (or similar) nature.

Of this series the artist has said:
"Very strange tankers pass along the Bosphorus. For example, an almond green tanker appear through the mist. Lemon yellow or satin blue, but more often rust, black, white, grey and dark blue. Only few of them have crazy colours, but there are some that do. Shocking pink, rose pink metallic tankers. They are like crazy sculptures made of metal, their immense size, their winches, their masts and their colours. Then there are those colourful containers. I did a picture of a ship loaded with paint. And I did lots of paintings of tankers. But there is something very personal in submarines. The submarines I saw occasionally silent and gliding, seemed to me like messengers of darkness. Submarines frighten me. This is my personal Moby Dick. Moby Dick is actually a very strange and fascinating metaphor. Similar to submarines which represent, I think, death..." Omer Uluc Bird of desire circles without end, Istanbul, 2005, p.51.

Trained as an engineer, an ever present tension between his interest in the material, the substance and his fascination with the mysterious, the essence, characterizes the works of Omer Uluc. Clarity of structure, amorphous though it is, contrasts with absence of detail. The viewer is forced mentally to make up the difference. Ambiguous too is the origin of the bold brushstrokes of which his paintings are comprised. Though seemingly calligraphic, the artist himself denies links to calligraphy. At times he proposes the flow of the Bosphorus, with its meandering waters, as a source. Otherwise he suggests an affinity with movements of subatomic particles. Undeniable, however, is the characteristic fluidity in his painting syle, which is present in all three, and consciously or otherwise evokes such associations in the viewer.