: t,*. T T - 5 V t

nee an area where destitute artists eked out their centimes over long cups of coffee in pavement cafés, the Rue de Seine is a slightly seamy street in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank which has become one of the most chic places in Paris. But some things have not changed — half-way down the street, La Palette is still attracting a slightly Bohemian clientele, which includes Turkish artists. Every Saturday, in this busy little café, a somewhat raucous group of Turks gather to enjoy a demi of beer, accompanied by a pungent Gauloise cigarette. At one table sits painter Abidin Dino, an aristocratic-looking man in his late-70s, with his wife, talking to another painter Utku Varlik, ceramicist Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye and other Turkish artists and intellectuals. At the bar is Yiiksel Arslan, drinking Kristal, which he says is made somewhere in central France and tastes much more like Turkey’s raki than the other,sweeter French aniseed drinks. The tradition of Turkish artists in Paris goes back a long way, as does their connec­ tion with La Palette, the one café in the area which has kept its old appearance, says Arslan. It still has several second-rate paintings on the wall, along with the inevita­ ble artists’ palettes, a bad-tempered waiter and a pleasantly run-down atmosphere. La Palette was adopted by Fikret Mualla (1904-66), the first Turkish artist to move to Paris permanently in 1940. Many BY AMELIA others before had spent two or three years FRENCH there. Even in Ottoman times, painters, ¡BA ÖĞRETMEN/ mainly with a military training, were sent to SIPA PRESS the French capital to study.

Fikret Mualla (left) adopted La Bohemian Paris is still alive and well in a little café on th i Left Bank Palette and was the first Turkish artist to move to Paris permanently in 1940; Komet (right) arrived in 1972

62 63 Mualla had little in common with his military forebears. Mad, unruly, and fasci­ nated by the Bohemian image of life in Paris, he drank excessively and was fre­ quently hurled out of cafés for not being able to pay his bills. Hakkı Anlı (top He did a little painting at Montmartre right) and Abidin — scenes of Paris life full of lively colours Dino (right) and strong, heavy figures, sometimes belonged to the faintly reminiscent of Toulouse Lautrec and Picasso. But it was not easy. There were D-Group, founded simply too many artists, many of them in the 1930s by Dino mediocre, so he started to paint around the and other artists to Rue de Seine, near the Ecole des Beaux- encourage Turkish Arts, selling his work on the street or in art to take on little galleries nearby. Western trends. Mualla started to frequent La Palette in Selçuk Dentirel (far 1951 and continued a life of excess until his lifestyle caught up with him and he moved to right) one of the the south of France where he died under the younger set, still care of a French woman known only as believes that Paris is Madame Anglés. the centre of the art “This was his area,” says Abidin Dino, world and Utku who followed Mualla to Paris, along with Varlık (bottom left), others such as Hakki Anil, Selim Turan and who left Istanbul in Avni Arbaç. Several of these had belonged to what was called the D-Group, formed in 1970, says he often the 1930s by Dino and other artists to feels he was encourage Turkish art to take on Western bom in Paris trends, such as cubism and expressionism. Today there are about 40 Turkish art­ ists based in Paris. So why did they leave Turkey? Dino, aged 76, is the grand old man of Turkish artists in Paris. He says he came because he already had links with Paris, having lived there for five years as a boy. He returned in 1938 for several years before settling there for good in 1953. He remem­ bers St Germain in the 1950s, when it was much livelier and frequented by Picasso and wealth of museums. “Paris was much more Varlık remembers his student days in numerous other artists. Dino was awarded attractive as a place to people of our voca­ Istanbul in the 1960s affectionately, al­ the Lauréat of Arts and Letters last June. tion. It wasn’t easy to be an artist in those though he was more than ready to leave Anh, aged 83, received a scholarship to days in Istanbul,” he recalls. He exhibited when he did. “At the time, there were black the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1947 and moved this year at Tem art gallery in Istanbul. clouds looming,” Varlık recalls, sitting in his there permanently in 1954. His early works There was considerable coming and attic studio on a swelteringly hot Paris are strongly reminiscent of Cézanne, then going in the late 1930s and 1940s between afternoon. In Turkey, there was a wave of Picasso, before he established his own style Istanbul and Paris. Bedri Rahmi Eyiiboglu, student unrest which was to lead to a mili­ of heavy, dark figures. Anh enjoyed consid­ perhaps Turkey’s most famous 20th-century tary intervention in 1973. erable success in the 1960s, exhibiting artist, spent some time there before return­ “Our education was substantially influ­ widely throughout Europe. ing to Istanbul to teach at the Academy of enced by foreign culture. Turkey has always Arbaç received a scholarship from the Fine Arts. been strongly influenced by other countries, French government in 1945, but insists he Several of Eyiiboglu’s students subse­ especially Western culture, and our genera­ would have gone anyway, drawn by the quently received scholarships from the tion believed everything of value was for­ Turkish government to the Ecole des Beaux- eign. It was only later we saw some value in Arts. Omer Kale? studied under him before Turkish culture. I left and closed the door leaving for Paris in 1965, as did Komet, who behind me in 1970.1 would have left even if I arrived in 1972. The spate of artists in­ hadn't got my scholarship because I wanted cluded Utku Varhk and Erdal Alantar, al­ a change. On top of that there were only though the latter studied in Florence before three galleries in Istanbul at the time. In leaving for Paris in 1959, on a whim, with Turkey, a painter had to be a teacher or do his wife. another job to make a living.” “In those days, life happened in Paris,” Apart from government scholarships, says Alantar, who had to struggle at the France was the favoured destination, be­ start, working in factories to make a living. cause of French culture. “We loved its cin­ He is much in demand now, teaching in Paris ema, art and life. At the time, France was and exhibiting around Europe and fre­ still the artistic centre of the world. Now it quently in Turkey. His next exhibition will has moved to New York, Berlin, even be at Istanbul’s Soyak gallery in September. London,” Varlık says. Dino, in particular, represented an im­ puppet, Karagöz. His work is often inten­ second-hand booksellers along the Seine, portant intellectual figure for the younger sely disturbing, sometimes humorous, and followed by a visit to La Palette, where he painters, an image strengthened by his links the colours are strong and natural. refuses to sit down, because “I spend 14 with numerous French intellectuals and art­ He was initially invited to Paris by hours a day sitting at my desk and reading or ists such as Picasso, Jean Cocteau, André André Breton in 1959, who had heard his drawing”, chatting to different people and Malraux and Jean Prevert. name through an American poet and art teasing the waiters. Varlik says he often feels he was born in critic, Edouard Roditi, to participate in an Caricaturist-cum-illustrator Selçuk Paris. He sees nothing Turkish in his paint­ exhibition on the theme of erotism in sur­ Demirel, one of the younger set, arrived in ings — carefully composed oils, all of which realism. Unable to get a passport, he had to the late 1970s. He has been very successful, have a woman moving across them draped wait until 1961 before his eventual depar­ drawing for Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomati­ in a kind of spider’s web. His transparent ture. “Anyway,” he says, “I knew already que and numerous magazines and books. effect intensifies the dream quality in paint­ that I wasn’t a surrealist.” His work has featured twice recently on the ings which Varlik says are an exploration Like many of the others, Arslan mar­ cover of Le Nouvel Observateur, the current into the subconscious. His work sells well ried a French woman, but has never both­ affairs magazine. both inside and outside Turkey, where he ered to take up dual nationality. He returns Demirel’s work is greatly varied, often exhibited recently at the Artisan art gallery to Turkey rarely, professing a dislike for involving people facing some kind of di­ in Istanbul. travel, although he does exhibit at the Tern lemma. He works without stopping, dream­ Yiiksel Arslan has invented a word for gallery in Istanbul. ing up what he calls his formulae on the his work, which is more illustration than Arslan says he was simply looking for Métro, in cafés and in restaurants. He plays painting. He calls them “artures”. His tech­ adventure and that it was more chance than with objects to make a sometimes political nique is to rub soft stones on to a surface of anything else which kept him in Paris. He but more often universal comment. his own creation based on a medieval rec­ now lives in a small flat in the charmingly “Contrary to what people believed, I ipe. His work, predominantly series of small provincial quarter around the Rue didn’t come here for political reasons. Al­ figures, is often reminiscent of Hieronymus Mouffetard, near the old Sorbonne, sur­ though things were difficult in Turkey, and I Bosch, with his penetration into the human rounded by his “artures” and numerous old had been part of a group of quite aggressive psyche, often in an unhealthy state. tools, skulls, boxes of insects and bits and cartoonists or caricaturists, I decided to Arslan says he has been strongly influ­ pieces picked up at markets. pack my bags and come here just to live and enced by Nietzsche, the Marquise de Sade He rarely goes out, apart from his work.” France is for him the pays de la and the black humour of the Turkish shadow weekly stroll to inspect the bouqinistes, the caricature and he admired the long-standing 65 Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye “New York is perhaps more exciting, (left) considers herself but I had no intention of going to live there. a European but finds It’s very difficult to make it in New York. inspiration for her And we’re Latin in a way. We are very Francophile in Turkey. It was always natural large round ceramic for Turks to come to Paris. It’s still the bowls in ancient centre of European art and we’re Euro­ Anatolian peans,” she says. civilisations. Yuksel One of Siesbye’s pieces, a lapis lazuli Arslan (right) says he bowl, will be auctioned in Sotheby’s in came to Paris because London, on October 26, at a sale of impres­ he was looking for sionist paintings and contemporary ceramic pieces. adventure Omer Uluq, who has been based in Paris since 1984, agrees. “I came to Paris looking for calm, because New York is too hard and becoming very big business and superficial. It’s impossible for an artist to concentrate there.” He also says that London is not an easy place for foreign artists to get started as the galleries are more closed to outsiders, ex­ cept for those from the United States. Uluq is unwilling to establish himself anywhere. He has a studio in Berlin as well and spends about three months in Istanbul every year. tradition of drawing, going back to the 17th First and foremost, he says he is an and 18th centuries. He also believes that Istanbul artist, with close links to Byzan­ Paris is still the centre of the art world. tine and Ottoman art. His paintings consist Many of these Paris artists say they of vibrant brushstrokes some would link found it hard to get started and although come by the interest in a recent exhibition with the dancing shapes in Ottoman cal­ Demirel got going fairly quickly, he says he she gave in Istanbul. “People are suddenly ligraphy. He left Turkey in the 1960s and has had major financial difficulties at first. “But I interested in buying art, and with my pieces lived in the United States and Africa be­ never did any other kind of work to make it wasn’t just wealthy people. There were cause he felt restricted in Turkey, mainly by ends meet, like some of the others,” he also people who bought and paid in instal­ the lack of “internationalism”. says. He registered at the Ecole des Beaux- ments. I was very touched by that because “It’s very important to take risks in Arts to get the necessary carte de sejour to my prices are high. I sold everything.” art,” he says. “Turkish artists are very stay, but never completed his studies there. Siesbye settled in Paris only this year, timid. It was the lack of enthusiasm for art Demirel says he keeps in touch with but has been a frequent visitor since 1980. that pushed us out of the country, but it is Turkey and is keenly aware of what people at In her new workshop there she makes large growing now. Compared to other countries, home think of him and the others who have round bowls inspired by ancient Anatolian however, it is still very small.” □ left. However long they have been living civilisations. She works in stoneware, a abroad and whatever their feelings about reason in itself why she is unable to work in Amelia French is a freelance writer living in Istanbul. Turkey, all Turkish artists living in Paris her native country, because “I simply can’t exhibit regularly in Turkey. And often their get those materials in Turkey”. paintings fetch higher prices than those of She studied ceramics in Istanbul before their colleagues in Turkey. leaving for Denmark, where she learnt how Further information: “There is a certain snobbery in Istanbul to work with stoneware. She then worked in Tem Sanat Galerisi Soyak about buying from artists who live abroad, the Danish Royal Porcelain factories and Kuyulubostan Sokak 44/2 Büyükdere Caddesi 38 particularly among the nouveau riche, says after 26 years there, she decided it was time Nişantaşı, Istanbul Mecidiyeköy, İstanbul Demirel, who has recently exhibited at Nev for a change and came to Paris. “After such a (Tel: 1470899/1479756) (Tel: 1750910) Gallery in Istanbul. long time, it’s important for any artist to Galeri Nev Artlsan There is general agreement that the have a change and new challenges. I spoke Maçka Caddesi 33/B Vapur İskelesi 3 Istanbul art market is coming to life. Ce- the language and had many friends here and Maçka, İstanbul Ortaköy, İstanbul 66 ramicist Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye was over­ it’s still a very central city. (Tel: 1316763) (Tel: 1595156)

Kişisel Arşivlerde İstanbul Belleği Taha Toros Arşivi