The Search for Form

Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu (1911-1975)

Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu
Nude, c. 1930
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 cm
Lüset-Mustafa Tavi̇loğlu Collection

After he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts studying with İbrahim Çallı, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu went to Paris in the 1930s and worked in the studio of André Lhote, where he met his wife Ernestine (Eren Eyüboğlu).For Eyüboğlu, the nude, particularly in his early period, was a means through which he could explore different modernist styles. The colorful, decorative elements seen in the early nudes of Eyüboğlu, recognized for his passion for the visual materials accumulated from folk art of Anatolia, also hint at his search for a synthesis of East and West, nurtured particularly in the interest he had in renowned French artist Henri Matisse.

Bedri̇ Rahmi̇ Eyüboğlu
Hammam, 1952
Gouache on paper
57 x 47 cm
Zeyno-Muhsi̇n Bi̇lge Collection

A series of small and rather similar nudes Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu and Eren Eyüboğlu produced in the early 1930s almost resemble a ‘visual conversation’ that focus on a pictorial search. It is also possible to find the visual reflections of this earlier search in the synthesis Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu reached with his stylistic abstractions in the 1950s.

 Rahmi̇ Eyüboğlu
Nude, 1932
Watercolor on paper
15 x 20 cm
Lüset-Mustafa Tavi̇loğlu Collection

 

EREN EYÜBOĞLU (1907-1988)

Often depicting her nudes as part of a setting, Eren Eyüboğlu allows the viewer to feel that she maintains the anatomical characteristics of the figures she deforms. Both in terms of the Cézannesque ‘constructivist’ brush strokes that integrate her surfaces and in terms of her sensitivity towards color, Eren Eyüboğlu’s paintings reflect the weight she places on form.

Eren Eyüboğlu
Purple Nude, Undated
Gouache on paper
18,5 x 13,5 cm
Zeyno-Muhsi̇n Bi̇lge Collection

 

Nuri̇ İyem
Nude, 1936
Oil on cardboard
11,5 X 16,5 cm

NURİ İYEM (1915-2005)

Evi̇n-Ümi̇t İyem Collection Having graduated valedictorian from the İstanbul Academy of Fine Arts in 1937, Nuri İyem demonstrated an intense search for form in the copious nudes he produced particularly in his early periods. Although İyem is recognized today for his portraits symbolizing the Anatolian woman, the nude in his artistic career, which extends from geometric abstraction to abstract, and back to figuration in the pre-1960s, heralds a modernist artistic identity dominated by stylistic concerns.

Nuri̇ İyem
Nude, 1951
Oil on canvas
59,5 x 51,5 cm
Nur-Aytaç Manço Collection

Treating the nude as concept through which he explored the connection between subject and form, Nuri İyem once stated that it was quite difficult to distract the viewer from the ‘subject’ and guide him towards looking at the ‘painting,’ arguing that nude painting was, in that respect, a genre of art that challenges both the artist and the viewer. “After all, it is no easy feat detaching the viewer from the subject and allowing him to enter the world of the painting. Some might even put works of Chardin in the dining room, to increase one’s appetite.”