Ercüment Tarhan is one of the artists that follow the figurative art tradition. His style of art reminds classizm. A plastic effect can be sensed, structured from below, in the constitution of figures and objects in his paintings.

“ Standing before the canvas, I start painting spontaneously. When I get focused on painting, I start putting some lines and spots, that I don’t consider very significant, at the time, on canvas. This is an attempt to form an image and find a trail on the canvas. The abstract images that come out during the work process do not satisfy me. I start seeing this plastic form as figure, object and space. Later I try to visualize a feeling and sensation that also entails a story.”

It is like the way Mikelanj visualized the composition he wanted to make on a marble bloc. When we review the paintings in the exhibition, we see that colour is reduced to the minimum and it is approximated almost to the effect of white and black in most paintings. The first effect of these paintings is the white forms on a dark background and transitions reduced to the minimum, in between.

“I want to see the white in black as light. I try to stress the light and transparence of human beings. We should accept that black-and-white are the main elements in painting and colour is constructed upon this.”

He explains the reduction of colour to the minimum and the reason he chooses white to express ‘clarity’ as follows:

“In my previous paintings, light colours with white were used to express brightness. My artistic expression gradually became more precise. My direct engagement in white is because I want to use light more directly, too. It is because of my attempt to come closer to light. I want the figures and objects coming out of dark to carry a dreamy character and meaning.
We know that plastic arts have structured a particular language of its own and that abstract art aims at such a language. However, we sense a particular atmosphere, special interpretations of figure, almost a figurative approach particular to fiction or poetry.

“Most of the time I start with a poem. I cling on to a line of poem, that I keep repeating for months. It is like treating abstract forms as figure; convincing and testing myself… A person should first convince himself in what he is doing; don’t you agree? If I cannot convince myself, then I conceive every plastic value on canvas as a base layer, a deep force. At times, I cover it, I erase the traces. Then I have to find new tracks. The lines and spots I spontaneously put on canvas are like footprints. However, where I reach may be totally a different place.

It can produce a different impression.”

I ask why human figures either single or situated within nature are so central to this exhibition:

“Human body has a poetic expression. I try to conceive this poetry; I identify human beings with soil, or a tree… I try to mark the simpleness and singleness of their postures. I try to accentuate this effect by means of thick paint and light. Reducing colour also contributes to this effect.”

……

As we leave, we try not to get in the way of the porcupine that keep strolling up and down, across the wooden floor of the studio. It is dark night, İstinye is dark, gleaming with light.

1-Interview with Ercüment Tarhan at his exhibition at Atatürk Library Gallery, Taksim, Istanbul, to be published in the journal Sokak, 1989.