Turkish Drawing art has a background going back to Before Christ in the history. The first drawings are encountered in the motives of carpets, rugs or pots made of ceramic. The battling animal figures, geometrical ornaments and ‘Balbals’ carry the styles of the period to our present time. The oldest drawing and miniature examples are seen in Uygur Turks. A lot of miniature works are encountered in Seljuk period and those beautiful works are seen in our time. In Ottoman period The Miniature Art reaches its peak and craftsmen are supported by the palace. On the other hand in the eighteen century, the period which we live westernization most of the works just imitate the West so they are lack of originality. In 1940s Western style pictures do not satisfy the artists. Therefore, Turkish artists who realize that it is not possible to construct an original Turkish art through imitating and adapting the West try to find out an original identity. In my research, "The Effect of Illumination, Hat (Calligraphy) and Miniature from Traditional Arts on Contemporary Turkish Art and its Reflection on the Works of Erol Akyavaş" is examined. The aim of this research is to disclose the effects of our traditional folk arts that have been created and developed among Turks for centuries on contemporary pictorial art in terms of motif, form, composition and colour and their contributions to the effort of creating a national character by protecting them. The phenomenon I want to emphasize particularly is the current position of illumination, hat (calligraphy) and miniature in our traditional Turkish arts and the contemporary Turkish artist Erol Akyavaş’s way of reflecting and handling these values in his art. When the history of contemporary Western Pictorial Art is examined, it is understood that the mentality of benefiting from old sources was effectual after the 1950s. Nonetheless this utilization is not a direct way of excerption, but a reinterpretation of an idea hidden in the essence.
Miniature, Ornamenting, Calligraphy, Painting