Contrasts

Adopting a motif-based approach to the relationship between color and form, Ekrem Yalçındağ explores how contemporary art can relate to traditional art. He takes a particular interest in how the Byzantine and Ottoman decorative arts can influence the language of contemporary art. His paintings, incorporating decorative features that have been painstakingly executed with the finest of brushes, have color schemes that range from monochromatic to polychromatic. Although his canvases may seem to consist of the repeated depiction of a single form, they actually show a vast diversity. We sense that every tessellation in Yalçındağ’s painting has been placed in the composition with mathematical precision, creating the effect of an optical illusion. The wall painting, ‘Contrasts’, take its name from his use of primary colors and their contrasts, as well as his use of black and white. It is a contemporary interpretation of the relationship of the decorative tradition with its display spaces.