CONTENTS:
Page One
Selahattin Olceroglu Recreates Orientalist Works of
the Ottoman Empire
Page Two
James "Jim" Ward--From Woodcarving to
Pyrography
Cheryl Dow--A Pair of "How To" DVD Videos
Page Three
Susan Millis: Pursuing a Unique Degree
|
An Ottoman Bride |
Turkish artist Selahattin "Sel"
Olceroglu a retired Industrial Designer and
Interior Architect from Istanbul introduces WOM
readers to pyrographic paintings recreating 19th
Century scenes of Turkey during the great Ottoman
Empire. These scenes were originally captured by
European artists of that time in engravings and oil
paintings--which came to be known as Orientalist
works--when demand in Europe was high for pictures of
places considered exotic for them.
Some of the scenes portrayed formal events, such as
this intimate view (above) in An Ottoman
Bride of an elegant bride in a mood mixed with
happiness, excitement, and maybe a little trepidation,
in the anticipatory moments before her wedding.
Other Orientalist works captured moments of everyday
life in 19th Century Istanbul, such as the work below
entitled Grocer, the Pawnbroker.
|
Grocer, the
Pawnbroker |
My research had revealed there was a certain artist by
the name of Hüsnü Züber who did
pyrographic art for many years. His classic Turkish
house had been renovated to display his collection of
pyrographic works for the public, and a pyrographic
artist was working and living there--hence the name
Living Museum.
In the hope that Sel might know of this place, I wrote
asking if he had ever heard of the Hüsnü
Züber Living Museum of Bursa. (Bursa is a city
in the mountains about 200 miles from where Sel lives
in Istanbul on the Bosphorus Strait.)
Quite to my surprise, he wrote back that he knew
Hüsnü Züber himself and that the famous
artist had come to visit his studio in Istanbul about
four years ago!
A telephone call from Sel verified that the
76-year-old artist is still living in Bursa, that 450
of his works are there on display in Bursa, and that
Hüsnü Züber himself is the pyrographic
artist living in the Hüsnü Züber Living
Museum!
The wonderful story of Sel's recent trip by car to
visit and interview Hüsnü Züber, which
came about as a result of my query, will be the focus
of a later issue of Pyrograffiti. Our focus for this
segment is Sel's first glimpse of Hüsnü
Züber--when Sel was only 13 years old.
In 1959, the fine arts teacher Ms. Naime Saltan took
Sel and his classmates to an art exposition in his
hometown of Eskisehir. It turned out to be an
exposition of pyrographic pictures done in a Cubist
style by none other than Hüsnü Züber!
After 47 years, Sel still remembers Hüsnü
Züber then as a tall and thin young man in his
late twenties. He also has a striking memory of
something very important for him--something life
altering--the color of burnt wood.
He was only a youngster of 13; however, Sel's
imagination was already at work thinking that "if
the woodburning techniques would be improved in order
to obtain the different tones of this color, then it
would be possible to make excellent looking pictures
with these exquisite colors." He observed that
the wide blade mounted in a wood handle and heated in
a charcoal burner that he had seen demonstrated that
day by Hüsnü Züber could not produce
all of the variations of the color that he thought
could be produced if only there were a better tool.
He was already planning to revisit these possibilities
when he grew up, at which time he imagined there would
be such a tool available.
By the time he left the exposition hall that day,
Sel says that two things were indelibly engraved in
his memory:
"The name of Hüsnü Züber and the
must of improving the woodburning
techniques."
|
The Fountain |
It was in 1965, when then 19-year-old Selahattin "Sel"
Olceroglu left his hometown of Eskisehir and
arrived in the grand city of Istanbul for the first
time in his life.
He saw for the first time "those magnificent old
mosques, fountains, the St. Sophia Church, and many
other historical structures, as well as those
beautiful engravings of Old Istanbul made by European
Artists in past centuries."
Suddenly the ideas Sel had at the time of his visit to
Mr. Zuber's exposition started blossoming, and he
thought that "the color of burnt wood would be
the best color for drawing the pictures of those old
monuments and for reproducing those engravings of Old
Istanbul."
|
An Excursion by Ox
Carts |
Tool. Sel had made his decision at age 19 that
the color tones of burnt wood would work perfectly to
create the atmosphere of those works of old; however,
as he soon noted: "Nobody had improved the
woodburning techniques until then, in order to obtain
those colors. So I decided to create the tones of
burnt wood with my own efforts and started working
[that same year] with an ordinary 100 W soldering
iron."
Technique. "The years passed with my
insistent efforts for improving my woodburning
techniques. Completing each pyrographic painting
taught me the new secrets of this technique. Finally
one day, I thought that I got the required experience
and dexterity level and started working
semiprofessionally after getting retired from my main
profession in 1995."
Dino Muradian. Sel compares his technique to
Dino Muradian's in that they both work with a
customized soldering iron tool and only one customized
tip or point that each has modified "to produce
all the color tones on the wooden canvas." (Sel
uses the word 'canvas' metaphorically referring to the
wooden panels on which he does his pyrographic
paintings.) Their techniques are similar, too, in that
they both produce a pyrograph (rather than a
pyroengraving) because the final result is smooth, not
textured, and the surface is shiny.
Sepia and White Technique. Sel wanted very
much to define his technique. He generally avoids
calling his works pyrographic paintings because he
feels the word 'painting' would in itself be
misleading because no paint is used in the process.
So he arrived at the expression 'painterly method of
pyrography' to designate panels done in the pyrography
technique to create a work of fine art the way a
painter would. He explains it this way: "For
me, the painterly method of pyrography is the
different application of the classical black and white
(pencil work) technique. The only difference is that,
a wooden canvas [panel] and a hot metal rod [point]
are being used in the painterly method of pyrography,
instead of a sheet of paper and a pencil." While
a pencil produces black tones on white, a pyro-pen
produces sepia tones on white (light) wood.
Finish. It is up to this point that Sel says
that he and Dino have self-trained in the same way and
that they are "on the same road proceeding
towards perfect pyrography." But here the road
suddenly forks and he takes another course from
Dino's. Sel prefers to lacquer his wooden panels
while Dino finishes his work without the lacquering
process. Sel says this about Dino's preference:
"...I think I know why he doesn't lacquer his
works. Lacquering the canvas spoils a little bit the
natural appearance of the work because it is coated
with a different type material. On the other hand,
the lacquer may yellow in time, if you don't use the
correct type. And of course, this causes a change in
the original color of the wooden canvas and the
general appearance of the work." In defense of
his own position on this issue, he continues, "I
know also, what happens if you don't lacquer your
canvas. No matter how clean the environment is, the
canvas gets dusty and dirty in time and you cannot
clean it with a piece of cloth, because it causes the
dust particles to stick on the panel very badly. You
can never use detergents or other cleaning spirits
either. [Note that in our recent dialogues, Sel
learned that Susan Millis is researching some of these
very concerns and he is hoping, as we all are, that
she will learn the answers to some of these questions
in the next couple of years.] For now, Sel concludes
that--without lacquer--the deterioration of a wood
panel would be hastened.
Vocabulary. Sel's web and email addresses all
have the words yakma resim (written as
one word), which are the Turkish words for burnt
picture. He explained that yakma
daglama, the other two words I had seen used
in the Turkish sites I was visiting to research
Hüsnü Züber, refer to pyroengraving and
also the type of designs produced by a tip like a
little branding iron in a particular shape, such as a
spiral or a heart, for example, where a decorative
artist creates a border with a repeated pattern.
|
Sultan Aysegul |
Posed as a sultan (above) is a lady by the name of
Aysegul Tecimer--a well known collector of antique
Ottoman objects. She is fond of having photographs
made of herself dressed in vintage Ottoman garments.
Adapting a 2002 newspaper photograph of "Sultan
Aysegul" posed on a sofa, Selahattin worked on
the above pyrograph in the same technique he has been
utilizing to capture his 19th Century Orientalist
works and created his own Orientalist composition by
surrounding the "sultan" with additional
objects and designs from actual mid 19th Century
engravings of Istanbul.
|
Galata Tower and
Bereketzade Fountain |
Selahattin "Sel"
Olceroglu has his own very beautiful bilingual
Turkish-English website at www.yakmaresim.com.
The Selahattin
Olceroglu Salon in
the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art is another site that
features his outstanding work.
The Orientalist Artists. At this link for Amadeo
Preziosi is a very nice article describing the
Orientalist painters and the fascination of 19th
Century Europe with Istanbul. Here is an excerpt:
"They stayed sometimes a few months, sometimes a
few years, and left a legacy of paintings and
engravings illustrating the city's mosques, palaces,
fountains and squares. But there was one who fell in
love with the city, settled down and spent the rest
of his life there: Count Amadeo Preziosi."
Here is a link for Thomas
Allom who is Sel's favorite Orientalist artist.
This link for John
Frederick Lewis has a long list of his beautiful
pencil sketches of scenes from Andalusia that are in
the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San
Francisco. Each title is linked to its corresponding
image.
Here is the first of two sites for Eugène
Flandin another Orientalist artist whose work Sel
admires greatly. The second link is to the Cornell
University web site's Making of America series, where
on page 695 is a reference to Eugène
Flandin's publication L'Orient.
Hüsnü Züber Living Museum. Link
here to the web site of a cultural site featuring a
great picture of Sel's inspiration Hüsnü
Züber relaxing in his garden, followed by an
exterior picture of his classic Turkish house, and
then an interior picture showing one of the exhibit
rooms. To find this segment, scroll down about
three-quarters of the page and look for the name
Hüsnü Züber Yasayan Müze
(Hüsnü Züber Living Museum) to find
where it starts. The text is in Turkish.
Coming soon! Look for the story of Sel's meeting with
Hüsnü Züber at his Living Museum in
Bursa in an upcoming issue of Pyrograffiti.
|
Topkapi Palace,
Kubbealti |
Sel has strong beliefs about the importance of
pyrography, the importance of the pyrographic
technique employed, and the obligation of pyrographic
artists to stay true to their art form. He does
"not see those artists as true pyrographers who
use paints on their pyrographic works." He
likewise believes that "pyrographers must not
work for money. They must dedicate themselves to
working towards creating 'The Mona Lisas of
Pyrography'."
By this, I assume he means that they should not in any
way compromise their art form in order to sell their
work or work on commissions that would require that
but instead work to perfect their art form and create
works that will be admired by future generations the
way the Mona Lisa has been admired.
He believes that pyrographic artists should work to
standardize the term "painterly method of
pyrography" for encyclopedias where long
explanations and many wonderful examples of this art
form will be admired through the centuries as the
wonders of the painting technique of plastic arts are
today. "Otherwise," he says, "this
exquisite technique will never grow up and will stay
as a dwarf technique forever and it will never be
accepted as a true art technique and a branch of the
plastic arts."
Sel is championing the cause of the pyrographic
technique. He says, "We must introduce the
painterly method of pyrography to the critics and
experts of the plastic arts in its original, pure, and
innocent appearance, if we really want the painterly
method of pyrography to be accepted as a new branch of
the plastic arts." For him, "Adding paint
to a pyrographic work detracts from the nature of this
beautiful art technique." He is what we generally
call a "purist," and throughout the
centuries of our art form, there have always been
others who think the way he does.
"If I criticize myself on this subject," Sel
writes, "I will simply say that I must
immediately quit working on reproducing engravings of
Old Istanbul and create my own genuine works to
participate in the efforts to achieve the targets
mentioned above."
"I am aware of this obligation of mine for years,
but I couldn't do it until today because I love those
engravings very much. I want to introduce them to
younger generations in a different appearance, and I
want to state my personal appreciation to the memories
of those European Artists because they have created
these beautiful documentary artworks, published them
in their countries and have acted like our honorary
ambassadors by introducing the wonders of Istanbul in
their own countries more than a century ago. As a
matter of fact, I have been dreaming of a big project
about them."
"The European Council has declared the city of
Istanbul as The Cultural Capital of
Europe for the year 2010. For this
reason," Sel says, "many cultural activities
will be taking place in Istanbul in that year. I have
been dreaming/planning to participate in these
activities with my own artworks."
"I want to make a minimum of 20, if possible, 25
pyrographic reproductions of those engravings in the
next three and a half years" Sel continues,
"and exhibit them both in Istanbul and in the
countries of those European Artists. Because the
British Artists like Thomas Allom, William Henry
Bartlett, John F. Lewis, etc., have made many
remarkable engravings, they will be represented in
this exposition with 10 or 12 reproductions, and the
balance will be shared among the artists of the other
European countries. This project will be the best way
of showing my personal appreciation...but it is in the
dreaming phase yet, because I can't afford all the
expenses by myself." For this reason, Sel plans
to make an agreement with a big company, such as a
British company operating in Turkey, that would
sponsor and organize such an international event.
In the event that this plan should fail, Sel says that
he will then have the time to devote to making his own
original pyrographic pictures.
|
Hüsnü
Züber and Selahattin "Sel"
Olceroglu |
|
Detail from An Ottoman
Bride |
2006, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
