Looking at the painting from the East: Şehrengiz and Arabesk series

The usage of Eastern imagery in contemporary art constitutes the fundamental starting point of this study. As a source of imagery, the East has inspired artists of almost every art period, owing to its artistic roots and rich cultural memory. The fascination with the East, known as the cradle of civilization, science, and art, and admired for the existence of powerful states, transformed into an exotic and utopian world along with Orientalism, which is a construct of the West. This transformation has been examined in conjunction with significant examples of artworks. Despite the Western fantasy of the constructed East, it can be observed that the art practices in Eastern cultures, such as calligraphy, miniature painting, architecture, and book illuminations, had a significant influence on Western abstract and abstractionist art movements in the Modern era. Turkish art, which initially sought to develop through the emulation of Western art, turned towards the imagery rooted in its own culture and art in the context of seeking originality and national identity. In contemporary art, where individual and original expression takes precedence, many contemporary artists, whether educated in Western art or traditional arts, merge the images specific to their cultures with their individual artistic practices. The aim of this thesis, written using the literature review method, is to provide an overview of the use of Eastern imagery in artworks throughout art history and to explore the foundations and art historical background of my own artistic productions, namely the "Arabesque" and "Şehrengiz" series. In this context, numerous contemporary artists in Turkey, especially those from regions referred to as the "East," turn to their personal memories and the cultural imagery that shapes those memories, regardless of their artistic education, to create unique and individual artworks. The "Şehrengiz" (no translation available) and "Arabesk" (Arabesque) series, which form the main subject of the thesis, also encompass artworks that explore my personal memories and the cultural imagery that shapes them. The tradition of "portrait" derived from Western art education converges with queer images, symbols, and linguistic indicators represented by Arabic and Persian imagery in these series. Additionally, some artworks included in the flow of the thesis, such as the "Şifa Dileği"(mean Wish for Healing) piece containing Arabic script as an Eastern image, and certain works incorporating "date seeds" and the "written word" from my series "İkram-ı Ebedi," have been examined and incorporated at suitable points. As a result, they contribute to a retrospective perspective on my artistic productions.