‘I lived with art and music’ - Abdurrahman Öztoprak
The Elgiz Museum presents the works of Abdurrahman Öztoprak, one of the pioneers of Turkish Abstract art, under the title ‘In Memory of Öztoprak...’ on the first anniversary of the artist's death. Curated by Haşim Nur Gürel, the exhibition was on view between 20 September - 01 December.
‘In Memory of Öztoprak...’, as in the book published simultaneously with the opening of the exhibition, emphasised the artist's recent works in which he created geometric, simple yet lyrically detailed, luminous constructions with his unique experimental language.
The exhibition also offers a close look at Abdurrahman Öztoprak's art, which is known for its small number of works, developing with music, poetry and emotions in a kind of hermit life away from art circles.
Abdurrahman Öztoprak, Painting 483, 2012, Elgiz Collection
Brave Reds
The curator of the exhibition, Haşim Nur Gürel Öztoprak, describes the paintings as ‘pastel greens, purples, blues, greys and bold reds on a black background of gold - pastel greens, purples, blues, greys and bold reds that gradually seep under your skin and take you under their influence when you can spend time alone and together and when they are examined, It can be seen that they are interwoven with sprays of silver and copper particles, and an ascent from the bottom layer of the painting to the top can be perceived’, and drew attention to the fact that the artist used less and less gold and silver particles spraying technique in his works enriched with intermediate colour tones after 2005.
Beyond modernity
Dr. Silvio Fuso, director of the Ca'Pesaro International Museum of Modern Art, said: ‘Abdurrahman's work can be seen as beyond the modernity we accept today... Only the eyes of a designer, a planner, could transform the kinetic flow shaped by technical and material means into his own experience, coloured by the infinite visuality of light... and he has preserved the great ornamental tradition of the East to which he belongs, even further emphasising the spiritual metaphors within a formal framework. In Abdurrahman Öztoprak's works, the doors of different worlds open to each other’.
About Abdurrahman Öztoprak...
Abdurrahman Öztoprak, who died on 26 May 2011 in Akyaka, Muğla, was born in 1927 in Rumelihisarı, Istanbul. Considered one of the pioneers of Turkish Abstract artists, Öztoprak graduated from the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts between 1945 and 1951. He then travelled to Italy with a scholarship in 1952-1953 and graduated from the Rome Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to the group exhibitions he participated in at a young age, he held his first solo exhibition at the Maya Art Gallery in Istanbul in 1954. In the same year, he was awarded an honourable mention among 38 paintings by 36 artists by a committee consisting of members of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in the competition titled ‘Paintings from Turkey's Economic Life Showing Various Production Activities’, organised for the first time within the scope of the 10th anniversary of Yapı Kredi Bank's foundation. In Germany, where he travelled due to the immigration of his family, he continued his painting studies while working as an architect and designer.
Öztoprak explains in his own words that the turning point in his art life was the moment he encountered a work by the German-Swiss Abstract Expressionist Paul Klee, which he saw at an exhibition in Germany in 1967; ‘The Paul Klee I saw at this exhibition... With the gold background first on a small plaster plate brought from a private collection, and the watercolour work he made on this background, I found the starting point of the real motion I have been looking for years!’
After returning from 15 years in Germany, where he lived for 15 years, the artist continued to paint in Akyaka, where he spent his life until his death, and is known for having produced few works, and his works are included in important museums and collections such as the Hermitage Museum in Turkey and around the world. The source of the ‘rhythmic and lyrical’ feeling intensely felt in his paintings is his passion for classical music, which constitutes an important part of his life. Abdurrahman Öztoprak is one of the pioneers of Abstract painting, which has an important place in the history of Turkish modern art. Before the exhibition ‘In Memory of Öztoprak’, the artist's 80th birthday celebration was celebrated at the Elgiz Museum in 2007 with the exhibition ‘Poetics of Space: Öztoprak and His Generation‘ in 2007 and “Sublime Figures of the Heart's Ecstasy” at the Ca’ Pesaro International Museum of Modern Art in Venice in 2008 were the last exhibitions emphasising his importance in Turkish and world art history.
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