Fikret Mualla - "Un Homme et Une Femme au Cafe"
A Lost Face In The Crowd: Fikret Mualla: Have you noticed how at ease Fikret Mualla feels in a crowd? Although he spent all his life greaming of four walls in which to take refuge, he regards a crowd as his home. He often wanders in places to which he feels he belongs. He spends time in bars and bistros where amusement and melancoly are inextricably entwined, becomes lost in the pandemonium of the street that flows away carelessly, and illuminates the melancholy that is obscured by the glittering nightlife. The artist is now viewing the crowd impartially. It is as if he were rearranging all the rooms of a vast house in which he himself were living; changing the colors of the walls, discarding what is unwanted, and bringing together the things that he always wishes to see. Collecting people of diverse social classes anda ge groups from the street, he places them in a single-colored room. He seats a smart gentleman and his overdressed wife with a street unchin, and a businessman returning from work netx to a young woman selling flowers in the same place, at the same unidentified time. In some cases, there is not even a city skyline or tavern atmosphere to give any sense of time and space. These street figures come together in front of the colored wall of the room, perhaps against their will. The painter pairs them off in front of a plain background, in other words, he puts them on display. We seem to be watching part of an equivalence map for comparing character, dress, social class and mood. It is as if the painter were csaying, “Human beings consist of nothing but what is conveyed by the countenance and body.”
Levent Çalıkoğlu, “Fikret Mualla”, İstanbul Modern, 2005, Sayfa: 23
Colored serigraphy
53 x 61 cm
1956, signed
This work has certificates prepared by Marc Ottavi and Bayram Karşıt.
Estimate: 1.000.000 TL - 1.500.000 TL
Starting Bid: 21,983.88 USD
