Devrim Erbil, 1937

Devrim Erbil graduated from the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1959, where he was a student of Halil Dikmen and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. He returned to the Academy in 1962 as a teaching assistant and worked in the studios of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Cemal Tollu, and Cevat Dereli. Along with Altan Gürman, Adnan Çoker, Sarkis, and Tülay Tura, he was one of the founders of the Mavi (Blue) Group in 1963. Erbil became a professor at the Academy in 1981 and continues to live and work in Istanbul.

The paintings of Devrim Erbil explore where “nature” ends and “abstraction” begins. He probes natural forms by leaving out their complex, innate harmonies and rhythms. He also uses geometric forms to tease out and isolate the life force of not only flocks of swooping birds, but also seemingly immobile natural forms such as bare tree branches and plant stalks in winter. This approach provides the starting-point for his interpretation of nature. Rather than seeing a straightforward picture of a forest with leafy branches, a viewer is invited to imagine a forest that is a thick mass of dancing branches and flowing streams.

“Interpretation of Nature” seems to consist of forms spread out on an even plane, but upon closer inspection a viewer begins to see that there is actually a complex labyrinth of textures and surfaces. The vertical bars seem to be retreating into the canvas as though they form part of the shadows cast by the trees, while thin layers of yellow paint join and diverge like streams of light. Thick strokes of spatula-applied brown paint repeat the palpable, irregular rhythms of natural textures that are reminiscent of tree bark.