Mustafa Ata, 1945

Mustafa Ata graduated from Adnan Çoker studio at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts in 1971. He embraced Çoker's concept of symmetry, and adapted it to figurative painting, evolving his own unique style based on a technique of broad brushstrokes. In his paintings the figure is the focal point and he concentrated on its movements. Mustafa Ata depicts his distinctive human images engaged in various activities. The starting point of some of his works are political and social events, and his sensitivity towards the subjects and the atmosphere created by his colorist approach can be clearly felt.

As in this painting, “Four Figures”, Mustafa Ata's paintings usually consist of figures in an undefined space distinguished by their movements and portrayed entirely as heaps of muscle. By coloring the muscles in different and contrasting colors, these figures consisting of muscles take on an almost expressionist style. Despite the picture's name, there is a shadow seemingly disparate from the other dark figures in the background. The axis of the painting is this group of two figures that divides the canvas from top to bottom.