The painting exhibition of Onay Akbaş, a world-famous painter from Fatsa living in Paris, named “LINE from One End to the Other” will open in Ordu.
The exhibition curated by Emre Zeytinoğlu, reflecting Onay Akbaş’s artistic journey, will meet art lovers at Ordu Taşbaşı Art Space on December 20, 2024. The works to be exhibited in Ordu, the artist’s hometown, after Paris, Istanbul, Mersin and Izmir, reveal a life and art adventure extending from Fatsa to Paris. The exhibition, which will be open between December 20, 2024 and February 22, 2025, will take place at Ordu Taşbaşı Art Space.
PROCESSES EXTENDING FROM THE STREET TO THE CANVAS
The exhibition includes works that Akbaş produced inspired by street life and transformed into new symbols in his workshop. The creation process from the first sketches to the completed paintings process reflects the artist's unique approach based on "poetry, politics, philosophy and canvas".
TRACES OF MEMORY AND ART
Akbaş's works question the intertemporal effects of memory, while bringing together the dynamics of street life with art. "From One End to Another" makes visible not only a spatial journey but also intellectual and artistic transformations.
The fact that this exhibition is titled "From One End to Another" brings together not just one thing Onay Akbaş wants to tell us, but many things. When we read the title in question, the movements between geographical areas will of course come to mind for the first time. The life journey that started in Fatsa, the formation of an artistic identity in Istanbul and the maturation of that identity in Paris... However, none of these processes are separated by sharp boundaries and do not sever the relationships between them. Onay Akbaş says that all these geographies always feed each other, creating complex, difficult to analyze, intertwined effects in the transitions from one place to another. Therefore, every work we see in this exhibition should be the total result of those "end-to-end" movements.
At this point, while observing the successive changes in the technical aspects of the works, we should also pay attention to how these are shaped solely by "human conditions". Again, when we listen to the artist's words, we can learn how he experienced the effects of an anonymous culture and family structure in Fatsa and brought them to Istanbul, how he brought them together with the "Maltepe Painters" dynamic there, and how an increasingly stronger autonomous artist identity reached its highest level during the Paris years. Then, we think this: The exhibition titled "From One End to Another" reveals a long path where both practical street conditions and an artistic adventure walk hand in hand. Or let's say this more clearly: These works we see are literally images of an autonomous artist identity constructed in street practice.
However, there is a different situation here, and that is this: Since we have stated that Onay Akbaş has been building his own autonomous artistic identity throughout his life from Fatsa to Paris and has constantly reflected this in his works, then we will have to accept that memory plays a major role in all of his works. We should know that memory is not remembering certain events experienced in the past; in other words, memory has no resemblance to a memory. While memories revive past events in the mind, memory changes those events and infiltrates behaviors in the "present time". Another definition is as follows: The "present" mind is blended with the uncertain effect of things experienced in the "past". Or as follows: Memory has a secret power that directs our minds at all times, and it is almost impossible for us to discover how it dominates our thoughts.
This is the most interesting aspect of Onay Akbaş; in each of his works, he sets out to search for the relationships between his own artistic identity and memory. His works are never directly affected by the current events he encounters, they do not represent them; but while perceiving those events, he investigates how his memory affects him. For instance, the completion of a painting, its placement in the exhibition hall and its presentation to the audience is not a very satisfying process for Onay Akbaş. He also wants to explain each step of the painting on display, where it started and where it reached. For instance, the first sketches are quite important because they reveal the initial intention of that painting, its developing ideas or the reasons for setting out. Each line drawn expresses the connection of the "current" practical movement with memory, and the multiplying lines push that painting towards the whole, while also aiming for the discovery of memory. Onay Akbaş claims that a sketch is "a journey" and defines the period until he reaches a completed painting as a "kitchen". That "kitchen" should be included in the painting down to its most remote corners and shown as clearly as possible.
The time that passes from the sketch stage to a completed painting also causes surprising situations for the artist. When the artist freely leaves his decision on each line to the control of his memory, the images that appear on their own will also prepare some surprises for him. The relationship that each line that becomes visible under the influence of memory begins to establish among themselves will of course spread out on the plane like a knitting that develops moment by moment, but each stitch will present the artist with new problems that need to be solved. The completion of a painting means dealing with the surprising problems that emerge from the beginning of the work. Onay Akbaş calls this process "the simultaneous emergence of instinct and experience on the canvas". And those surprising problems that emerge during the formation of the painting should be revealed in such a perfect way that they open the door to the artist's next moves. This situation takes us to the same place once again: The bringing together of the data collected by the memory between times in the painting and the knitting of the stitches of that painting from beginning to end... Exactly "From One End to Another".
We are talking about the life of a painting that starts in the "delivery room" and continues with the presentation of the data collected by the memory... The painting is as if it is transferred into a "foundry workshop" and is manufactured there. However, the processes in the workshop do not only proceed with the raw materials collected from the memory; these "memory materials" also need some "binding materials". Onay Akbaş uses four materials for these processes, which he defines as the "4 Ps": "Poesy", "politic", philosophy", "peinture". In other words in Turkish: "Poetic", "political", "philosophical", "canvas painting" or "painting"... Although these four materials undertake important functions on their own, it is inevitable that the mixtures they form will also undergo extremely precise measurements. In addition, the atmospheric conditions in which that mixture is made are of great importance. If those atmospheric conditions are not met, a healthy mixture cannot be obtained from them. Onay Akbaş's experiences show that the most suitable atmospheric conditions for him "It has shown that it can happen on the street.
0 begins his own sketch works as the "first edge" in coffeehouses, ancient cities, public spaces where pluralities gather, and work environments. These are the places that directly stage life. And then those preliminary preparations will be carried to the artist's studio, that is, the "foundry", where they will be internalized and transformed into the geometries of new symbols. From now on, the names to be given to the paintings will no longer have a direct relationship with the scenes on the street; they are the names at the "other end" of how the artist transforms those scenes into interiority and transfers them to geometric areas on the plane: These are names open to surprises...
We should also mention this: The materials Onay Akbaş uses in his paintings also have a connection with "street life". For example, the fact that the patterns depicting miners from Zonguldak in mine tunnels opened meters below the ground were made with ballpoint pens is not coincidental or arbitrary. Or it does not have a pictorial connotation. This is a choice related to the fact that the traces of the pencil on the paper cannot be seen under the coal dust... The ballpoint pen was used because it could be more functional in that mine, but gradually the necessary movements of those lines began to affect the practical conditions of the miners. and even transferred his spiritual state to the patterns. This can be considered as a "spiritual symbol" of "mineral patterns"...
And ultimately, paying attention to the "end-to-end" processes of all the works we watch in the exhibition, which start from points suitable for "street conditions" and reach the canvas painting, will help us understand their meanings better.
Source: https://www.ordulolay.com/haber/22856375/ordulu-unlu-ressam-onay-akbasin-resim-sergisi-orduda