Theelation Between Geometric Order and Clear Colours

 

İ S M A İ L  A T E Ş

 

 İsmail ATES (Gole 1960)

 

Theelation Between Geometric Order and Clear Colours

 İsmail ATES

"In Ismail Ates's large size canvases, where straight and horizontal lines, pure geometric forms, and areas of pure colours dominate, the mode of interpretation which gradually turns into a minimal aeshetics is based upon a certain understanding of equilibrium and proportion."

In art, geometry and mathematical proportions have a kind of immunity which come from the old "canon" system and Boethius and which in contemporary art continues to be influential at certain levels. Altough at the first glance these products exhibit a sight that limits free products, in terms of their structural range which provoke all kinds of tendencies, they undoubtedly occupy a particular place of their own. Here, it may be enough to remember the approach of a research team extending from Fechner to McManus and Roger which is based on the problem of equilibrium in art. When we look from hose points where mathematics and geometry interseed with aesthetics and especially in parallel to be contemporary artistic formations are shaped around Op Art, we can establish the fact that the solutions coming from geometry and mathematics, including visual illusions, create a total not to be underestimated. At a level defined as "the mathematics of aesthetics" in Birkhoff's words, and at a stage where aesthetic theories are expressed in terms of mathematical formula, we see that a considerable distance has been covered since Mondrian.

However, geometry, and more than that mathematics, still has a cold face. Thinkers have had a hard time combining these fields with art. Yet, when we come to the basics, it does not seem surprising at all that in the efforts towards searching for measure, equilibrium, and symmetry methods based on calculations or measurements have continued to be dominant. In the context of artistic creation where nothing is left to coincidences, artists have been sensitive in relating their search for aesthetic equilibrium and harmony to some fundamental standards, the reason for this must come from the structurality of mathematics and geometry that instill security. Isometric forms based on "one to one correspondence" have oriented the artists towards similar or common solutions throughout history, a collective approval coming from general agreement on certain ideas must have had a share in this. In an environment where even the mathematicians often claim that they exercise mathematics for "aesthetic reasons", it would understandably be wrong to consider art to remain outside this environment.

In Ismail Ates large size canvases, where straight and horizontal lines, pure geometric forms, and areas of pure colour dominate, the mode of interpretation which gradually turns into a minimal aesthetics is based upon a certain understanding of equilibrium and proportion. Even in places where degraded colour tones are used only rarely, the fact that he keeps away from the associations which would suggest three dimensions, means that Ates has adopted and understanding of composition rooted in geometry, based on the surface aesthetics, not feeling any need to give any concessions. Indeed, the squares, the triangles, and the rectangles in his paintings, which reflect a meticulous workmanship as if drawn by a ruler, beyond expressing the idea of the whole and the part, and the equilibrium and the proportion between these two, leave no place for any other consideration. Ismail Ates when making this arrangement, gives us the impression that he voluntarily lets himself be carried away by the influence of architectural drawings, where geometry, most probably makes its influence the most strongly visible.

This impression is not misleading at all when we look at the projects made for architectural purposes; this phenomenon, which strikes our attention immediately, makes us realize how important this mathematical precision is. For, before anything else, architecture has an obligation to have this precision. It does not tolerate any flaws. At any rate, the logic of the matter makes this obligatory. Well, in Ismail Ates compositions, which seem to have settled in their particular orbit in recent years, there is such a precisions aimed at bringing geometric plasticity to the foreground. This precisions, which is similar to the clarity of the contours that separate the figure or the object from the space in traditional paintings, is used here for the sake of mere abstract form. In contrast to the poetic or symbolic abstraction, here we find a scheme which is geometricised and simplified as much as possible, suggesting a supremacist approach carried to the extreme point in the familiar sense. This is a "supreme" point which is rendered geometrical. At the first glance, it focuses on a certain pure-colour effect; the relationship of the corners to the sides, the formation of a congruent arrangement, all of which find their proper places, around an axis taking this point as its basis.

Approaching through Goethe's theory of colours, one would notice that the colours treated in Ismail Ates's abtract geometric compositions are evaporating surfacial colours. These surface colours, built on the mutual equilibriums and at places on the symmetry of the smooth and static forms, do not create any associations in us pertaining to the reality of nature. And this is only natural, for everything in this picture is merely abstract; the parts of the form are arranged to serve this purpose. Even if one considers that colour is bound by a physiological, physical and spiritual structurality, it would still be missleading to assume that these forms, which are distanced from reality, have completely disregarded the stimulus-response relationship. These clear pastel colours, which seem to have been pulled away to a distance from making a striking effect, basically draw the spectator into a spiritual purity and leave him tête-à-tête with himself. The relationship of a clear geometric order with pure-clear colours draw a frame together which complement each other in Ismail Ates's paintings.

Kaya ÖzsezginArtist Art Magazine, The Publication of Gallery ArtistDec. 2002, Istanbul.

Oil painting on canvas,

Oil painting on canvas,