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 & 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 & 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.

To see more of Ayhan’s artwork, visit Evocations of Glories Past exhibition.