Metro Bits

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

Yücel paints the Taksim underground with his art

Returning to Turkey after living for 25 years in the United States, successful artist Yücel Dönmez has embellished the Taksim-Kabataş underground in the centre of Turkey’s culture capital, Istanbul, with his synthesis of traditional Turco-Islamic with contemporary art.

After many years spent in the US, artist Yücel Dönmez is continuing his work in his studio in Kadıköy Moda in Istanbul. In his youth, Dönmez worked as a skiing instructor, journalist and tourist guide too. Choosing to continue as an artist after his graduation from the State Academy of Applied Fine Arts, Yücel Dönmez has exhibited his art work in many venues around the United States. Being admitted to one of the leading encyclopaedias of American art history, ‘Who is who in American Art’, Yücel has recently decorated the Taksim underground entrance of the Taksim-Kabataş funicular line with four giant tableaux. A brief interview follows…

What made you decide to make the tableaux for the Taksim Underground Station?
I was contacted by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality via the internet. When they came to my studio they showed great appreciation for my artwork. I in turn, said, “I will accept the commission if I can work in my own style. Foreign visitors should see original Turkish art, unaffected by the West.” And so it was. Now thousands of people walk in front of these tableaux and experience authentic Turkish art.

What did you want to say with these paintings?
I synthesised the techniques I had personally invented whilst making the tableaux. I brought to them the characteristics of traditional Turkish arts such as Ottoman calligraphy, marbling, and embroidery mingling with features of all of the civilisations having lived on Anatolian lands as well as Byzantine art. The 12 m2 acrylic painting in Taksim Station is a transportable monolithic piece of art, painted on metal. The modern 7 m2 painting under a glass sheet is the world’s largest painting of its kind. I gave these works the name, Millennium Tuğra [the name given to the Sultan’s signature and used to distinguish each Sultan form another]. The 5 m2 digital painting entitled ‘Digital approach to Istanbul’ is situated as the train leaves the station. I also decorated the 4.5 metres high winches with artwork. They form a multi-coloured art-piece of kinetic movement. The whole system can be seen through the glass caging placed around it, and is perhaps the only one like it in the world.

You are the founder of the Deepism movement. Could you tell us a little bit about it?
“The ‘Deepism movement’… Humanity is living in a period of profundity in the 21st century. We are getting below the surface of everything. Nowadays we can put a camera in a human vein and observe what is going on inside, not to mention take photographs of the organs in the body. They have found a way of extracting the different sounds in space. Biographies have gained importance. There is a journey into the depths of every subject. I have put a series of layers in my paintings. You can see 10 pictures one on top of the other in any one of my paintings. You can also take a deep step inside and walk around. You can feel yourselves being able to travel to the backgrounds of the paintings, when you look at them. This gives the paintings a feeling of spatial depth. These layers represent Deepism.

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

"I also decorated the 4.5 metres high winches with artwork. They form a multi-coloured art-piece of kinetic movement. The whole system can be seen through the glass caging placed around it, and is perhaps the only one like it in the world."

Mike · Site Admin Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 57

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

There is on other original art works in Istanbul metro I am going to send more article and pictures very soon about.

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

There is Istanbul Metro's art video from You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlVDhEC_ZW8

Mike · Site Admin Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 57

Yes, please post more articles and photos!

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

Transportable contemporary art work has been displayed in a public space for the first time in Turkey. Alongside painter Yücel Dönmez’ 12 square metre-large acrylic painting on metal, are a 7 square metre contemporary painting under glass, and a 6 square metre dijital image, all shown in the Taksim-Kabataş funicular station in Taksim. The artist has also transformed a winch measuring 4.5 metres in diameter and forming the pulley system for the funicular wagon, into a brightly coloured kinetic work of art. Encased in a special glass box, this giant cog is the first time a functioning motor has been turned into a working piece of art.

Taking traditional Turkish art and the different aspects of Anatolian culture as a starting point to create his own contemporary style and technique, Yücel Dönmez has been working on his art in the city of Chicago in the United States for the last twentyfive years.

Described as unique and uninfluenced by the West or by another master painter by well-known American art critic Alan Artner, Yücel Dönmez has, as a result of his self-developed technique and interesting style, had mention in many encyclopaedias in the U.S.

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

design76 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Istanbul/Turkey

Yücel Dönmez developed his ‘under glass’ technique from traditional Turkish arts, just as he did his painting technique, carrying them into a contemporary style. The 7 square metres under glass painting carries notes of Ottoman calligraphy (Hat), ornamentation (Süsleme) and Ottoman Sultans’ personalised signatures (Tuğra), which Dönmez mentions is an original and novel style in Turkish art. He adds that he has not yet heard of an under glass painting of such a large dimension anywhere in the world. The giant under glass transportable picture, painted into a special type of shatter-proof glass, weighs a phenomenal 200 kilograms.