SCHEHERAZADE WITH A BRUSH

Entertaining with Music & Poetry
Ayhan Algur (Turkish)

Like a modern-day Scheherazade, Ayhan Algur’s mission is to engage his audience in order to preserve a life. For Scheherazade in 1001 Arabian Nights, that life was her own. For Ayhan, it’s the memory of the glorious accomplishments of past Anatolian and Middle Eastern civilizations—Arab, Byzantine, Ottoman, Persian, and Seljuk.  

Entertaining with Music and Poetry was inspired by a 12th-century Seljuk miniature painting and features a haloed figure, a hallmark of this early Turkish dynasty’s art (perhaps a Buddhist influence). According to Ayhan, this piece reflects the highly refined culture that characterized the Islamic Golden Age (762-1258).

It also reflects a change in Ayhan’s artistic practice that I’m delighted to have influenced in a small way…

While visiting Walter, I saw for the first time a religious icon
that the late artist Nasra Şimmeshindi had painted on cloth. This
opened a new window for me in terms of painting on fabric and
using childish naive lines. When I researched Nasra and her paintings
more, the subjects and techniques I use in my paintings took a
different direction. One of my first paintings on fabric, ‘Entertaining
with Music and Poetry’ reflects my love of vibrant colors. I also love         
experimenting with new pigments, and used fabric dye in addition to
acrylics. Its strong black contours are a habit I picked up as a cartoonist
in my youth. Being in touch with and reviving the past’s magical
world with my own interpretations is a great journey for me.

If I’ve whetted your curiosity about Nasra Şimmeshindi and would like to see the cloth icon that inspired Ayhan, I invite you to revisit the earlier section titled SACRED CLOTH.