The Şahin Kaygun exhibition, currently on at the Istanbul Modern, is an absolute treat for photography lovers. Little is written about the Adana-born multidisciplinary artist, who, always seeking new forms of expression, played a pioneering role in photography in the 1980s and 1990s, and generally paved the way for experimental photography in the country.
‘Untitled’, 1991
The usually light and bright Photography Gallery has been enigmatically lit for the most comprehensive show on the artist since he passed away in 1992. Curated by Sena Çakırkaya, it is supported by archival work and spans the entire of Kaygun’s career from his early experimental intervention in photography in the 1980s – when he produced Turkey’s first Polaroid series – through to his final years when he reached a pinnacle in blurring the boundaries between photography and painting.
‘Self-portrait’, 1987
In the 1980s, when the term ‘interdisciplinary’ didn’t exist in Turkey’s photographic culture, Kaygun combined photography with disciplines such as painting, graphics and cinema, and explored new and unique applications of photographic techniques. Kaygun’s ultimate goal was to find a contemporary interpretation of the link between photography and other art forms, and this is what the exhibition highlights most fruitfully. Admiring the pieces, one can be forgiven for not realising the artist worked 30 years ago – his work looks thoroughly modern.
‘Colours in Harmony’, 1991
Kaygun started earning a living painting when he was still in high school. In 1969, he entered the graphic arts department at the State University of Applied Fine Arts in Istanbul. The artist, who developed an artistic interest in photography during his university years, saw graphics and photography as two fields that nourished and complemented one another rather than ones that were separate and distinct.
‘Untitled’, 1978
In the 1970s, Kaygun went through what was termed as his ‘black-and-white’ period – graphic elements can be seen in his work, which comprised almost exclusively of documentary photographs or portraiture.
‘Untitled’, 1984
It was during in his years spent in Germany in the early 1980s when Kaygun first started experimenting with photographic language. Kaygun’s Polaroid series represented his first attempt at manipulating photographs. He opened the first Polaroid exhibition in Turkey in 1984 and brought to the forefront a style that was not paid heed by the majority of art enthusiasts. He interfered with the Polaroids right in front of his audience – the withering images and faded colours were replaced with painterly elements that were incorporated onto to the images by scrapping off the emulsion on the surface and adding colour. After this exhibition, Kaygun became the first photographer to be presented with the Ankara Art Foundation Award, which he entered alongside important artists such as Erol Akyavaş and Eren Eyüboğlu.
‘Untitled’, 1984
Works from this series have been exhibited in major museums and art institutions around the world, and are on loan from the WestLicht Museum of Photography in Vienna, which purchased the collection in 2011.
‘Untitled’, 1985
Kaygun continued working with Polaroids, incorporating other artistic elements to produce works that either had a fictional narrative or were more experimental. Always with an expressionist approach, Kaygun produced collages, fantastical installations and symbolic narratives. Existential subjects such as humanity, life and death, that can be observed in his earlier work, continued to appear ever more potently in his later work. The political atmosphere of the 1980s (when Turkey withdrew from the international stage) led to a period of individual crisis and introversion that can clearly be seen in his art from this decade.
‘Untitled’, 1980
In his recurring themes such as the female body, dolls, seashells and dead birds, fantasy and reality are intertwined. The further his subjects were removed from reality, the more he allowed himself to experiment technically.
‘Untitled’, 1984
The artist once said, ‘I don’t take photographs, I make photographs’, and indeed Kaygun would create the composition in his mind before capturing the image – there was no room for spontaneity in his process.
‘A Widow’, 1985
Kaygun was also an accomplished filmmaker and considered cinema as the meeting point of all art disciplines. Before dabbling in directing, Kaygun wrote screenplays, but he excelled most as an art director. He decided on the visual aesthetics of films like Dul Bir Kadın (A Widow), Adı Vasfiye (Her Name is Vasfiye), Ah Belinda and Anayurt Oteli (Motherland Hotel). The film credits of A Widow (1985) comprise Kaygun’s photographs, which are shown to be taken by the protagonist in the story.
‘Rainbow’, 1991
Kaygun’s last series, In the Ancient Seas, which he produced one year before his death, was inspired by the sculptures at the British Museum. Kaygun imagines the ancient figures as characters in his self-fabricated tales and thus presents a different slant on hardened historical aesthetic values. The protagonists of these tales leave the ‘cold halls’ of the museum and are transformed into immortal characters on canvas.
‘Untitled’, 1991
During the time Kaygun was active, it was often debated whether his works are more congruous with photograph or painting. But this is not what is important. On the contrary, Kaygun’s aim was always to establish an interdisciplinary art language – and he certainly succeeded.
The exhibition continues until February 15, 2015.