Well-known for his provocative photo-realist paintings, the
Istanbul-based artist Taner Ceylan
(b. 1967) began his Lost Paintings Series as a contemporary exploration
of the Orientalist gaze. Upsetting both Western and national master narratives,
the Lost Paintings Series presents “Oriental” figures in a fascinating
navigation of history, power and narrative. Esma
Sultan (2012), Ceylan’s depiction of an eighteenth-century Ottoman princess
renowned for her cruel disposition, draws on the empowering mythology of
passionate, ruthless and assertive womanhood that characterizes accounts of her
life. Deploying a male body under jewelled tulle, 1553 (2013) creates a
queer image of Roxolana who, initiating the era of what is
known as the Sultanate of Women, made a huge impact on the evolution of Ottoman
politics and, as the chief minister to the Sultan, played a crucial role in the
Empire’s external and internal affairs. Recovering and drawing together forgotten legacies and silenced
voices in a brilliantly imagined new setting, ten paintings in Ceylan’s series invite
the viewer to look behind the veil of Orientalism and the politics of
representation. Rather than offering a corrective, the artist amalgamates
irony, playfulness and realism to recast Orientalism as heterogeneous and
susceptible to negotiation, contestation and even subversion.
Collaborating with Serkan Delice (UAL) and Wendy Meryem Kural Shaw
(Universitaet Bern), Cüneyt Çakırlar co-authored the artist’s monograph The
Lost Paintings, which is to be published in September 2013 on the occasion of Ceylan’s
solo exhibition at the Paul Kasmin
Gallery in New York.
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