Erol Akyavaş

Background

Erol Akyavaş was born in 1932 in Ankara, Turkey, into the family of Hasan Tahsin Akyavaş and Melek Akyavaş. His family lived in Ankara, İzmir, Samsun, Bursa, and Istanbul because of father's work in Real Estate Bank.

Education

Erol finished Architectural Department of Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts. Between 1950 and 1952 he continued as a guest student at Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu Workshop. From 1952 to 1953 he attended summer studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Finally, he studied architecture with Mies Van Der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Career

After his studying, Erol went to Paris and continued to work in Fernand Léger and André Lhote workshops and attended the "Cercle et Carré" group in Paris. After 1950, he held personal exhibitions in New York, Cleveland, Rome, Milan, Bremen, Stuttgart, London, Berlin, Paris. In 1954 he went to the USA, and in 1960 - 1962 he continued his architectural work with the architect Euro Saarinen.

In 1960 Erol Akyavaş entered MOMA with his work, his paintings in Bremen and Stuttgart. Since 1967 he moved to New York. Throughout the 1960s, he made strange perspective paintings called "Odalar" as well as his paintings of dominant amorphous figures. That was followed by a series of bird's-eye view of the castle, "Pyramid Landscapes", "Interiors", "Wall", and "Corner."

The artist placed geometric shapes such as pyramid, cone, cube, or furniture such as table or chair in a strange perspective arrangement in those interiors which he created with bricks or tiles. Akyavaş performed serials from the beginning of the 1980s to Islam, especially to the philosophy of mysticism: he interpreted the images he received from miniature, calligraphy and marbling arts with an abstract narrative.

Akyavaş once again made use of the bird's eye view of the castle in the "Karbala" series which was realized in 1983, "Gazali" in 1985, "Miraçname" in 1987, and "Halaç-ı Mansur" in 1988 - 1989. The artist died at his home in Salacak, Istanbul, on April 20, 1999.

Achievements

• The artist has achieved considerable success in Western art circles, which he joined in the 1950s when still a young man.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Kat Kar Teknik

  • Fallen City II

  • The Siege

  • Vav

  • Fallen City

  • Untitled

  • Miraçname

  • Mansur Al Hallaj

  • Alma Ausente

  • On the Way to Karbala

  • Untıtled

  • Recounting of Mohammed’s Ascension Into Heaven

  • Kaleler Dizisinden

Views

Attaching great importance to contemporary freestyle in his compositions, Erol put his traditional and Eastern aesthetic into his paintings, which inclined to the unknown aspect of the inner world. In the 1970s, Akyavaş adopted more of a sense of Islam and focused on the problems of identity and tradition in Turkish painting. Akyavaş’ paintings came to focus on light and color over the course of time, and he was one of those rare artists who tried to give a meaning to art with sacred feelings and who were able to express Islam in a modern way.

Membership

Erol attended the "Cercle et Carré" group in Paris.

Interests

• spots, calligraphic images, and abstract shapes

Connections

In 1956 Erol married Ilona Mosolygo, daughter of a Hungarian family, with whom he met in Cleveland. In 1959 their daughter Nazan was born.

Father:

Hasan Tahsin Akyavaş

Mother:

Melek Akyavaş

Spouse:

Ilona Mosolygo

Daughter:

Nazan Akyavaş

Daughter:

Mirgün Akyavaş

Friend:

Mies van der Rohe

colleague:

Fernand Léger

colleague:

André Lhote

colleague:

Eero Saarinen