Atatürk and the Spırıt of Natıonal Struggle in Contemporary Turkish Painting: the Example of Paınter Avnı̇ Arbaş

Abstract

With the establishment of the Republic, innovation movements started in the field of art as in every field.  Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, thought that the situation of a poor country emerging from the war could be developed through education and art, and in this direction, he prioritised and supported the development of Turkish Painting Art. In this research, the spirit of national struggle in the Atatürk portraits and paintings of Avni Arbaş, one of the pioneering painters of Contemporary Turkish Painting, who was raised by the young Turkey emerging from the years of difficult struggle, has been the subject of the research.Avni Arbaş was born in Istanbul in 1919 and lived in Anatolia for a while as the son of a soldier father who served alongside Atatürk in the Gallipoli War. He completed his high school and higher education in Istanbul.  He died in 2003 at the age of 84 in Izmir.In 1937, he left Galatasaray High School to enter the middle part of the State Academy of Fine Arts, which is now Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.  He studied in the workshops of İbrahim Çallı and Leopold Levy. In 1946, he participated in the ‘Travels Abroad’ and went to Siirt. In 1951, the painter travelled to France and returned home in 1977. In his paintings, he depicted Atatürk and the spirit of national struggle with horse figures. The horses in his paintings have left a mark in the history of Contemporary Turkish Painting Art with their rebellious, warrior and enthusiastic expressions. Arbaş reflected expressionism in a poetic and enthusiastic style, not in a prescriptive manner. As a member of the Yeniler group, Arbaş did not favour an art detached from the public. Throughout his artistic life, he painted on the axis of nature and figure. He shaped his works depicting Atatürk by presenting scenes carrying the spirit of national struggle in his own language and understanding, far from the usual aesthetic moulds with his stainist understanding. In this study, document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. Books, articles, postgraduate theses, newspaper news, data taken from the internet and interviews with the artist were the sources of the research. The findings obtained by analysing the ‘equestrian figures reflecting Atatürk and the spirit of national struggle’ in the works of the artist were interpreted.     With his works, he adhered to the historical and cultural texture of the Turkish society and brought works that can be an example of the historical, cultural and artistic heritage of our country to future generations as an archive within the history of the Republic.