Selim Turan was an enigmatic artist. Although Turkish, he spent more than half of his life in France. Born in a mansion in Istanbul in 1915, his family came from Azerbaijani roots. Turan was well-versed in the language of modernism and yet one of the works that most inspired him was Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar's "The Conference of the Birds." The title of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum's Selim Turan exhibition, "Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis," points to these transformations, contradictions and the vibrancy of an artist whose work continues to give pleasure to this day.

Studying under Feyhaman Duran, the subject of the main exhibition at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Turan made a name for himself in the 1930s Istanbul as a talented artist. In the following years, during single-party rule, he travelled through Anatolia as part of the "Nationwide Journeys" (Yurt Gezileri) project, painting bucolic scenes from distant villages. After winning a scholarship, Turan traveled to Paris where he became acquainted with leading figures of European art.Selim Turan - Self-portrait, 1930-35 Oil on plywood

Turan's father, Hüseyinzade Ali Turan, was a doctor who had come to Istanbul in the late nineteenth century to work at the Military Medical School. This private physician spoke numerous European and Eastern languages and was an intellectual and passionate supporter of Azerbaijan's independence from Russian rule.

Inside the house where Turan grew up, people spoke numerous languages and there was a growing interest among artists of his generation in both western and eastern painting traditions. After graduating from Galatasaray Lycee, Turan enrolled at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts.

"We have to remember that Selim grew up among a circle of contemporary nationalistic poets and writers in early 1930s in Istanbul with the idea that the Turkish nation could not depend on the humanism of 'Greek-Latin culture' alone," explains Dr. Necmi Sönmez, the exhibition's curator.

"This idea was also espoused by his father Hüseyinzâde Ali; and he argued that although the technical possibilities based on the science, education and positivist sciences of the Western thought were imperative, he believed that neither Islam nor Islamic culture could be ignored."

Sönmez, who knew Turan personally, is an expert on the artist's work, having published numerous studies of his paintings over different periods. "I started working on this exhibition on April 21," he told me in an interview last week.

"The important issue was to present Selim in a new interpretation in the context of his time. Selim's life and work is deeply influenced by two cities: Istanbul, Paris and the paradigm of Turkish Modernism. Previously, in August 2016, Yapı Kredi Publishing House published my monograph on Selim Turan. The invitation of Dr. Nazan Ölçer, director of Sakıp Sabancı Museum, helped me present an unknown, unexpected und unusual Selim to the public."​Selim Turan - Bodrum, 1941 Oil on canvas

On March 31, 1947, Turan went to Paris, after being granted a scholarship. There he spent most of his time visiting museums in order to get a grasp of the most recent developments in modern European art. Turan was part of a larger group of Turkish artists including Fahrelnissa Zeid, Nejad Devrim, Avni Arbaş, Tiraje Dikmen, Mübin Orhon and Abidin Dino, who also lived and studied in European capitals and imported those influences into their art.

"Paving the way for change by taking part in the international art world, this generation succeeded in shaking off the perceptions held in Modern Turkish Art until then," Sönmez explains, saying: "Their achievements manifested themselves as more Turkish artists were honored at international art events, while at the same time an artistic dialogue was established with their counterparts in Paris. Selim very soon formed close ties with the art environment in Paris in that period as one of the most important representatives of that generation, but he also kept in touch with his friends in Istanbul. Our exhibition presents Selim in search of his own place within both the Eastern and Western cultures."

The exhibition takes its title from an architectural project Turan worked on in France in 1976. The work consisted of three columns, which Sönmez says summarizes the artist's career.

"Throughout his distinctive path, Selim tried to develop a thesis, albeit uncertainly, between 1938 and 1947, when he was still in Istanbul. His argument, based on the idea that modern painting could only be created through personalization, had not only saved Selim from falling prey to uninspiring Academism but also from the stereotyped formalism of Cubism which was prevalent in Turkey. Leaving for Paris in 1947, he made significant experiments until the 1960s, which could be interpreted as the 'antithesis.' His works which may be evaluated as 'the synthesis' are mainly from the 1980s and were created in Istanbul. Here, the figures, calligraphic elements, religious and ethnographic references speak more of intertwined problems. In our exhibition we are presenting for the first time his complex, but inspiring mobile sculptures as a result of his artistic research with video and voice installations. We do hope that this will help us understand this introverted, but unique artist."