Reference to Time and History in Mehmet Ali Doğan

Actions not backed by a passion cannot carry a person to success. Passion, especially in artistic action, is considered as a basic stimulus. As educators, we say “Ability = Passion” when we speak about and define the art and the ability. The fact called passion brings about the determination, the inexorable effort and a struggle for it. It ensures to be in arts without submitting to the time, space and living conditions.

In another approach, while describing the arts, we say, “The art is an ocean from mountains, hillsides, forests, pastures flooding as a stream, as a brook, as a river and being supplied from underground and ground sources”. The art is a versatile, a multi-sourced treasure. Therefore, we consider engaging in arts as feeding from such treasure. We say, “Each person must experience this happiness as much as possible and must reflect the freedom of swimming a stroke in this ocean to his/her life.”

Naturally, we find the opportunity of experiencing a peculiar taste, a peculiar happiness when the students educated by us apply our sayings and when they make their arts an indispensable respect of their life.

Mehmet Ali is one of these students.

The art is indispensable for him. He is always busy with arts education and artistic creating effort: Painting, printmaking, drawing, wall painting.

Historical references are and were artistic elements referred, made use of, being affected, used as theme and motive by many artists in everywhere throughout the world and in any time. When they are used appropriately and in proper dose, when they are associated with modern trends, an effective painting language may be created in theme analyses. It is possible to see many positive and negative examples of this behavior in either Turkish or foreign artists.

Mehmet Ali Doğan had given works referring to Anatolian Civilizations in his printmaking works he began years ago by setting out black and white graphic idols in wide color areas. He had produced successful results by positive expression language he obtained from them. Such black and white idols scattered in geometric divisions where the red color was dominant were loading his paintings with expressions referring to today and past. Later, especially in his big scale canvas paintings he gave to State Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions and Şefik Bursalı Exhibitions with Contest, the painting fabric provided with sharp geometrical shapes was replaced with fabrics where the gradual transitions and layers were dominating in blue/gray values and with the historical motives concealed in them. In those works, the impression given by the layers and the expression creates a conscious “track” association on the viewers creating an effect of eternity in one sense and virtually drawing the human into the eternities of the time and history. To combine the problems of the painting with theme elements without escaping to illustration is possible with a reach image world, faculty, sensuality and accumulation. Mehmet Ali achieves to cover important distances in this path and to create his language without imitation by his intensive studies.

Both the history and the art is a perpetual treasure for artists. Certainly, successful results depend on the effort and accumulation of those knowing to make use of that treasure and visualizing them in an artistic sensuality. I hope, Mehmet Ali will scrutinize this issue for long years. Because, Time, History and Mind are concepts which provides opportunities to humans for questioning why and how they live and which creates ground for transforming the life and the meaning of life to a creative effort. Only in this way, such efforts may free the art from the wind of daily trends and zests and may transform the consistent individual basing on an ideational accumulation into personalities that can create activities. Mehmet Ali is providing important clues for future by taking important steps towards to such angle.

Prof. Hasan Pekmezci
Hacettepe University Faculty of Fine Arts