Alaettin Aksoy, 1942

A student of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Alaeddin Aksoy graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1968 and continued his education in Paris from 1972-1976. From the beginning of his career, figures have been central to his paintings, which are characterized by a distinctively “puckish” style of expression in which his subjects inhabit ambiguous settings that are neither real, nor quite imaginary. Aksoy is one of the most important representatives of the critical-figurative approach to painting that began to gain traction in Turkey in the 1970s. His figures, which tend to appear fraught with such emotions as melancholy, fear, anxiety, and hate, seem to be trapped in pastoral landscapes that convey a sense of timelessness. Aksoy doesn’t separate humans from nature in his paintings, but also does not emphasize the figures’ connection to the particular site depicted. The works evoke a troubling poeticism—nostalgia on the one hand and hope on the other.

Titled “Gardens of My Childhood,” this is a highly refined example of the artist’s work, showing figures positioned around a magnificent tree trunk. Critics have variously interpreted them as clusters of light, color, and meaning, and their interrelationship evokes an ambiguous mystery. The tree connects it all like a web, and grows as a symbol of knowledge, bonding, and rootedness. The touches of bright color seem to weaken the relationship between fiction and reality. The title references happy and peaceful days of the past.