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Vedat Muratli from Turkey

Interview with Vedat Muratli by Emma Smith October 2006

1. Is it right to assume that you mainly use acrylic on canvas for your work or do you also adapt pastel and watercolour?

A. I use various mix media based on what I intend to achieve while painting. I do have all sorts of ideas and materials in my studio; nature, real/fake, craft, high-art/low-art, image/object, man-made/hand-made, beauty, pattern, cute, fun, festive, romantic, abstraction, transcendence, touch, scale, colour, humour, love, the world, simplicity, plastic etc.

2. Are your paintings based on fantasy or reality?

I don’t know if I can make an exact distinction, all my paintings are based on both fantasy and reality. For me what appears to be realistic illustration is an inconsiderate approximation. In my work I concentrate on making things visible which is invisible and things which are hard to recognize or experience without destroying any illustration faithful to reality. I am interested in depth, the background the human existence, and how we act whereby I do not give preference to or exclude any special places or areas. I think I'm having an evolving conversation with all these ideas.

6. You seem to incorporate many different styles into your work - ‘Rain’ with its obvious Impressionistic roots for example, differs greatly from the softly Post-Modernistic ‘Composition’, is this diversity experimental… temporary, or a continuing trend in your painting ?

It depends. Some work, I just admire abstract painting so much. On the other hand, there are some styles that I’m just not attracted to. Perhaps it is not necessarily about the medium, but more about the subject matter or method. For example, I’m inspired by nearly all ethnic art. Then again, I love abstract painting, but am not a fan of some impressionistic paintings.

7. Some of your paintings, ‘Snow’ and ‘Yagmur’ for instance, steer away from the abstract completely, appearing very realistic - do you begin by taking photographs of your subjects for this true-to-life style?

You can learn just as much in a public library. A lot of my work is documentary-style, where it's just capturing moments that happen to occur. Those I can't really plan; they seem more natural. Yes, I also do have a lot of still, posed shots that work to arouse in a different way.

8. Your portraits of women have an abstract quality similar to that of Picasso, the use of colour, the thick brush strokes, the application of shadow and shapes. Has he influenced you and what are your views on his work ? I do not think that Picasso has left a single artist that was not influenced by his art works. Picasso’s works always revealed to me the power of simplicity even if they were considered complex and sometimes uncomfortably disturbing. I think every artist needs a deriving force in their life who pushes the creative life and who supports us through what can be a very solitary process. It does not matter that this is Picasso, a lover, home land etc. The basic concept of a painting is to be a conduit for the artists one-to-one relationship with the world (whatever that may be). This is the main idea behind each of my paintings, and to achieve that I use the style best fits to that specific work of mine at that specific time. 9. Have you been inspired by artists and their work, well-known or otherwise, if so who and in what way? All one's various influences are transformed so greatly over time, and become absorbed and interlinked, so it becomes really difficult to say which artists have had the greatest influence on my work. You also have to remember that often an artist manipulates the work of great artists who have inspired him. In order to produce an entirely original work, an artist cannot avoid betraying the works he most admires. In case, by saying this, I seem to be avoiding the issue, I can mention a few names, in no particular order of preference: Caravaggio, Goya, Degas, Picasso, and many others.

10. How long does it take for you to complete a painting?

I believe that one can work on the same painting for an indefinite length of time. When I feel that a painting has its own voice and is coming alive, I want to live with it, talk to it, quarrel with it, and agree with it.

11. There is no specific reoccurring theme in your paintings, was it a conscious decision not to have a recognizable motif or subject matter to be known by and do you feel it is imperative to diversify?

Starting a new painting is like moving in a particular direction. Painting is like going on a journey, sometimes full of adventures, which can take you to totally unexpected places. Oliver Cromwell said that "nobody goes as far as someone who doesn't know where he's going". This may be true, however paradoxical it seems.

12. Some of your work is exclusively showing aspects of Turkish life - how do you think this relates to other cultures?

In its broadest terms, art serves to give a voice to the voiceless. So my art offers a recognition of shared experience and observation of human condition where I live in general. Art finds it’s particular own ways of relating with other nations, I do not worry about it at all.

14. What do you hope to achieve as an artist, is it to inspire others?

Who knows which way the wind will blow….. In the upcoming years, I like to imagine myself still in my studio, surrounded by canvasses, easels, paint-brushes and cloths, with the smell of paint in the air, and the light coming through my window. I'd also like to continue to work larger, and perhaps work on some projects where I'm able to have a bigger budget. I'd like to sell more work clearly, but it's certainly not the thing that's driving what I make, but if it happened that would be nice. I just want to make more stuff. In inspiring others, my intention is that people can use my work as visual situations for contemplation and pleasure. I take it for granted that well-considered, well-executed art, aspiring to high aesthetic ideals, presenting a purity of feeling or expression, or any combination of the above contributes to society simply because it is.

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