MEANING IS REQUIRED, NOT CAUSE: EROL AKYAVAŞ

 

Erol Akyavaş’s solo exhibition titled Meaning is Required, Not Cause, primarily featuring artworks presented to the audience for the first time, takes place at Galeri Nev İstanbul from December 15, 2023 to January 27, 2024. The exhibition aims to show the diversity and depth of Akyavaş’s art through selected groups of works from different periods, allowing for detailed exploration of the artist’s sources of inspiration, universal language, and the milestones of his artistic journey.

 

Erol Akyavaş, one of the most successful figures in the pursuit of non-Western modernity, first encountered painting at Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’s studio at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts. Later, he studied the Renaissance masters at the Fine Arts Academy in Florence and further developed his practice and perspectives in art theory by working in the studios of André Lhote and Fernand Léger in Paris. In 1954, Akyavaş went to the United States and opened numerous exhibitions in various museums and galleries starting from 1955, ultimately settling in America in 1967. Claiming that Sufism served as a kind of lifeline during the challenging days he experienced in New York, he initially created geometric paintings with unconventional perspectives influenced by his architectural education. However, starting from the early 1980s, he began incorporating references to Islam and Sufi philosophy into his work. Thus, the sources of local iconographic heritage, Eastern philosophy, mysticism, and symbols have always been prominent in his artistic language.

 

His life of East-West synthesis, a natural consequence of living between Istanbul and New York for many years, and his extensive range of interests contributed to significant richness and diversity in his intellectual universe. Combining writings, symbols, explorations of color, formal experiments, architectural elements and the use of light and shadow with the divine and spiritual depth of the East, his works reflect a unique world. The artist, who initiated his artistic journey using the language of modern Western art, establishes profound connections with the audience by creating a polyphonic expression in his art, especially with his growing interest in Eastern and Sufi aesthetics throughout the stages of his artistic production.

 

Akyavaş’s art is not only based on mysticism but also on the historical and intrinsic accumulation offered to humanity by multiculturalism. The universe, ranging from medieval city plans to labyrinths and castles, from woven walls to calligraphy, from erotic figures to minimal abstractions, from icons to miniatures and edicts, is in fact the surfacing of Erol Akyavaş’s intellectual and aesthetic accumulations. Despite such diversity, there is always a common visual language that connects or holds together his body of work.

 

Resolving the philosophy of Sufism and its artistic depictions through the language of contemporary art, Erol Akyavaş’s new exhibition brings together various thematic and formal features grouped under a number of subheadings such as “Calligraphic Works,” “Cities,” “Icons,” “Sufi Abstractions,” “Modern Narratives,” and “Surreal Landscapes” at Galeri Nev İstanbul.

 

Akyavaş (1932, Ankara – 1999, Istanbul) worked as a guest student in Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’s studio at the State Academy of Fine Arts before going to France. In Paris, he studied in the studios of Fernand Léger and André Lhote. From the early 1950s onwards, he held solo shows in the UK, Europe, Russia, the Middle East and especially in the USA. He also participated in the 1^st International Istanbul Contemporary Art Exhibitions (1987) and the 2^nd International Istanbul Biennial (1989). He lived between New York and Istanbul from 1954 until his passing in 1999. Retrospectives held shortly after his death in 2000 at Dolmabahçe Cultural Center and in 2013 at Istanbul Modern provided a comprehensive inventory of his work spanning over half a century. His works are included in local and international collections such as Istanbul Modern, Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM), the British Museum, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Metropolitan Museum (The MET).