DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.51148/jaas.2020.4

CONCEPTUAL ART IN TURKEY: CENGIZ ÇEKIL



F. Nazlı Suyum¹and Canan Zöngür²

¹Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Social Sciences Institute, Graduate Student, Mugla, Turkey

²Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Bodrum Fine Arts Faculty, Bodrum, Mugla, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Conceptual Art emerged in the 1960s and displayed an entirely

idiosyncratic structure as compared to those years’ prevailing form pursuits. It

involved the art object in an intellectual process rather than a structural process. This

very understanding, which keeps its distance from art object and prioritizes the artists’

ideas, enables the artists to express themselves by exploiting all kinds of materials.

Similar tendencies became manifest in Turkey during the end of 1970s. Some Turkish

artists returned back to the country after completing their studies abroad and with the

occasion of biennials they became effective in the scene of conceptual art. Each of these

artists produced individually important conceptual artworks, which represent their

own time. This research is focused on Cengiz Çekil, who is an important representative

of Conceptual Art in Turkey, the period when Conceptual Art emerged, its leading

artists back then and their works. Furthermore, this paper includes the examination of

Cengiz Çekil’s works which carry the social and cultural traces of his time, his

interviews, art perception and both his position and importance in today’s Conceptual

Art. Based on the existing examples the literature has been reviewed and the artist’s

works have been analysed. When it comes to Conceptual Art in Turkey, one of the first

names that come to mind is Cengiz Çekil. For, by means of the unique mentality he

demonstrates through his ‘new’ and astonishing style, he has been one of the most

prominent artists in Turkish art history.

Review Article

PII: S238315532000004-9

Received: 22 Apr. 2020

Revised: 30 May. 2020

Published: 15 Jun. 2020

 Corresponding author:

E-mail: cananzongur@mu.edu.tr

KEYWORDS: Cengiz Çekil, Conceptual Art, Sculpture, Installation.

INTRODUCTION

into concrete forms. Art has its own justifications

and in order to give the human spirit the opportunity

Conceptual Art emerged in 1960s as a striking art

style among others, which were concentrated on

different artistic pursuits and trials. Nevertheless,

long before, in 1913, Marcel Duchamp had already

explored the readymade. By challenging his day’s art

communities through his unconventional and new

artistic approach, Duchamp brought the art works’

ideas, images, forms, aesthetical concerns and

messages forward. In that period, anti-Minimalists

had embarked and concentrated, in a similar vein,

on the ‘language’ of the artworks in relation with art

galleries, which are common venues for the artists

and their works to manifest their specific ideas. The

aim was to deliver an information through a visually

well-conceived and strong ‘installation’. All of these

attempts, undertaken by artists who focused on the

conceptual nature of artworks, triggered new and

investigative declarations.

to reveal itself, the unique art perceptive is

necessary. He also argued that Duchamp’s

Readymades changed the history of art completely

by shifting significance from ‘appearance’ to

‘concept’ [1 ].

Conceptual Art examples started to emerge

during the mid-1960s. However, much earlier, in

1952, John Cage asserted within his ‘integrated

sound field’ that music includes all kinds of sounds,

including any kind of sound that does not belong to

music and even the absent sound. He observed that

while sound has a pitch, loudness and duration,

silence has only a duration. During the performance

of his silent composition called Four Minutes Thirty

Three Seconds (4′33), he was just present, neither

doing anything nor producing a sound. Inspired

from Robert Rauschenberg’s 1951 dated works called

‘White Paintings’, Cage eliminated everything but

the random noises of the environment and duration

(common traits of both sound and silence). Cage’s

actual intention in this work was the individuality of

the observer’s experience [2 ].

In parallel with this objective, the artists, who in

terms of Modern Art are Conceptualists, attached

great importance to printed texts, photographs etc.

due to these materials potential to convey the

artworks’ messages directly and clearly to the

audience [1 ].

As an art phenomenon of the 1960s, Conceptual

Art is similar to Minimalism, however, it by-passes

the content and represses the aesthetical elements of

the art. This conscious contradiction, which arises

American artist Joseph Kosuth stated that it is

necessary to liberalise art, rather than imprisoning it

2020 SCIENCELINE

Citation: Suyum FN and Zöngür C (2020). Conceptual

art in Turkey: Cengiz Çekil. J. Art Arch. Stud., 9 (1): 23-

29.

Journal of Art and Architecture Studies

ISSN 2383-1553

JAAS

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.51148/jaas.2020.4

J. Art Arch. Stud. 9(1): 23-29, June 15, 2020

Suyum and Zöngür, 2020

from Dadaist approach, paves the way for some traditional art forms and the assumptions that

stimulating paradoxes. When Conceptual Artworks accompany these forms, he uses his ideas and

come together with the audience, (especially in language as a material [5 ]. Arthur C. Danto calls

deliberate places like galleries), it soon starts to Joseph Kosuth in his book ‘After the End of Art’ as

evoke traditional forms of art, since aesthetic one of the few people who during the 60s and 70s

expectation and imagination associate each other. produced artworks that analyse the philosophy of

On the other hand, brushing the aesthetics aside by art. In Kosuth’s ‘Art After Philosophy’ published in

following in Minimalism’s footsteps does not mean 1969, he stated that art invites us to an intellectual

that the artists need less time to generate their thinking and its aim by doing so is not to recreate an

artworks compared to Renaissance artists’ efforts. artwork but instead to understand philosophically

And then again, all creative processes require a what art is [6 ].

certain and conscious performance [3 ].

Joseph Kosuth’s “One and Three Chairs” is one

The expression ‘Conceptual Art’ was invented in of the most important examples of Conceptual Art.

1967 by Sol LeWitt to summarize these kind of In this work, a chair stands alongside a photograph

works’ intention: Rather than engaging the eye or of a chair. And next to the actual chair there is a

feelings of the audience, Conceptual Artwork’s photograph of a verbal dictionary explanation of the

raison d'être is to urge the viewers to think. Since word ‘chair’ hung on the wall. Eventually all of these

“the idea becomes the machine that makes the art,” three objects represent the chair, yet with different

planning and decisions should come before all else, codes. Thus exhibiting these verbal, visual and

which then relegates execution to the condition of “a representative codes of a single object together has

perfunctory affair.” LeWitt added that “ideas may been the smartest way to bring the connection and

(even) be stated with numbers, photographs, or irrelevant connection between the ‘referent’ and the

words or any way the artist chooses, the form being ‘signifier’ into question [1 ].

unimportant” [1 ].

Critics accepted that LeWitt has always

embraced an irrational, spiritual and mystical

verbiage, and that his main intention by inventing

‘Conceptual Art’ is to subvert Minimalism. In his

1966 dated manifesto ‘Sentences on Conceptual Art’

he lended credence to critics by mooting that

“conceptual artists are mystics rather than

rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic

cannot reach” [4 ].

Conceptual Art focuses mostly on the artistic

experience itself and this experience’s theoretical

elements, in such a way that referring to the object

becomes unnecessary. In 1969, Vito Acconci for

instance tracked individuals through the streets

Figure 1. Joseph Kosuth, ‘One and Three Chairs’

1965, folding chair, photograph of a folding chair,

photograph of the lexical meaning of chair. Chair:

82×37.8×53 cm, folding chair’s photograph: 91.5×61.1 cm,

photograph of the chair’s lexical meaning: 61×61.3 [7 ].

within his work called ‘Following Piece’, aiming to

link the viewer to an anonymous experience

(individual, viewer, photographer, Acconci) through

the candid shots his photographer provided [2 ].

Acconci stated that he had been an inactive receiver

of an individual’s space and time. One of his chases

ended after nine hours when the person he followed

entered a theater showcasing the movie ‘Paranoia’

[2 ]. By eliminating the aesthetical object in

Conceptual Art in the interest of manifesting his own

idea, the artist has been able to experience a number

of production methods.

The Conceptual Art understanding of the 1960s

and 1970s aimed to overcome the conventional

expectation from art, which eventually is not obliged

to produce aesthetically pleasurable forms. Some of

the early Conceptual Artists adopted an

understanding in which the artwork is useless, if it is

not able to preoccupy the viewer. Conceptual Art is

usually considered as ‘mind’s art’. Its representatives

emphasized its cognitive value rather than its

aesthetical value [8 ].

American artist Joseph Kosuth is also one of the

most important conceptual artists. He is a supporter

of the movement, which tries to reidentify the

constituents of an artwork. By questioning the

J Art Arch Stud. 9(1): 23-29, 2020

Although in this art circle technology seems not physical perishment of humans in the course of time

to be essential, the attribution to technology paved [11]. The chair is consonant with human body and

the way for the faith in artistic process. The main living style. Fat on the other hand, experiences

characteristic of contemporary art was not the radical transformation with

a tint change in

design of the venue anymore, it was instead, the temperature and thus indicates the chaos. For

interactivity between viewer, artist, main topic and Joseph Beuys everything is changing and the chaos

content. Since then, the description of an art object triggered by this reality may have a remedial effect.

has been connected to its efficiency in using the Beuys has seen in the transformation of fat and

venue. Both the limits of structural and artistic continuous formal changes that almost remind the

forms have become unclear; the artist preferred to spiritual alteration potential of humans, an analog of

exhibit her/himself (the image of self-consciousness) spirituality [2 ].

[9 ]. The artist’s inner-position had never converted

into such a direct material.

Based on this artistical environment, period and

approaches, this research paper investigates the

Yet another outstanding Conceptual Artist is moral of the period when Conceptual Art emerged

Joseph Boyes. Apart from his interesting life story, and its leading artists and in this context, it

participating in Fluxus and producing conceptual examines Cengiz Çekil’s, one of the most significant

artworks by using ordinary matters like fat, felt, etc., representatives of Conceptual Art in Turkey, works

transformed him into the most conspicuous artist of and art perception. And it is also aimed to lay

this movement. Beuys said: “I tried to separate the emphasis on his conceptual works’ place and

concept of plastic into three simple objects. But this

significance in Turkey’s contemporary art and

is not solely limited with objects that are physically herewith to contribute the related literature.

perceivable. The same thing applies to plastic

materials which are invisible.

start using CENGİZ ÇEKİL IN THE CONTEXT OF

unspecified materials like fat and soil, and through a CONCEPTUAL ART

certain action, I reconstruct a new form from these” Conceptual Art appeared in Turkey as from the end

[10 ].

of 70s and became prevalent within the art

environment of 80s. As one of the leading artists of

Turkish Conceptual Art, Cengiz Çekil created

remarkable artworks in this field and has been an

important representative of conceptual art, both in

Turkey and abroad. He was born in Niğde-Bor in

1945. He graduated from Ankara Gazi Education

Institute’s Art Teaching department in 1968.

Between 1970 and 1975 he completed his

Sculpture/Modelling study in Paris, founded by the

ministry. In 1978 he started working in Ege

University’s Faculty of Fine Arts department as

research assistant. Çekil regarded the sculptures he

produced in Paris as his first works [12 ]. He

launched his first solo exhibition ‘Réorganisation

pour une Exposition’ (Reconfiguration for an

Exhibition) in Paris.

During one of his interviews with Necmi

Sönmez, the artist stated that he was amazed by

Beuys’ and Duchamp’s works, and that he had

conceptualized his works under their influence. He

asserted that they are the benchmarks of

contemporary art and on all occasions he uttered his

admiration for both of them [12 ].

‘Direnç: Ölü Bir Somyanın Anısına’ (Resistance:

in Memory of a Dead Mattress), one of the artist’s

most known works (Figure 3 ) consists of a used,

dumped, rusted bed, carrying on the middle an

Figure 2. Fat Chair, 1964, Wooden Chair, Animal Fat [11 ]

Joseph Beuys’ Fat Chair transformed two

ordinary materials into an open-ended metaphor. In

1964 he exhibited this work in a glass case and let it

undergo a natural process of decay until 1985.

During this process the fat decomposed in such an

extent that it evaporated and nearly disappeared.

The main organic compounds he used in his artwork

let the audience identify themselves with these

materials and experience the temporarity of life and

Suyum and Zöngür, 2020

amiant band and above this a resistance lying. He

spread a piece of white fabric, a material that will

Another well-known work of the artist is “The

Yellow Rubber” (Figure 4). The work consists of a

canvas, lace and a hook. The lace and colour on the

background of a 144 pieces of flipped canvases fall

within the system of colours and shapes Çekil

rebuilt, and display formal diversities. The wooden

panel represents the Ottomans’ civil architectural

oriel windows, which protrude from the main walls

of the buildings without letting the people in the

house step outside. According to the artist, framing

the work refers to a kind of introvertedness,

motivated by the necessity of upholding the ‘honour’

of people living in the house. Both the rubber which

is commonly used in house cleaning and laces

installed as a second background highlight the

correlation between femininity and middle-class

family. On the flipped surfaces of the canvases there

are colour tones aking to human skin and tones like

yellow, purple, grey and beige which look like

bruises caused by physical abuse. These

components together are representing the domestic

violence which happen in a domestic setting and are

usually concealed [1 ]. Through these works the

artist emphasizes the cultural conservatism in

Turkey, questions the traditions and at at the same

time conveys his messages by exploiting conceptual

art’s freedom. And the immensity of materials he

selected to create these artworks is utterly striking.

As long as the artist’s practice serves the concept,

she/he is far more free in using different images and

objects as compared to minimalists [16 ].

become

frequently used material in his

subsequent works, under this installation. This

white fabric reminds a deathbed, a shroud, on which

a dead body lyes. This glowing hot resistance,

dividing the bed in to two symmetrical pieces,

symbolizes the ablaze resistance against death. The

artist has never been unconcerned about the goings-

on around him. This work, which he produced

during the time he lived in Paris, refers at the same

time to ‘La résistance’, the name of an anti-fascist

resistance which emerged against the Nazi

occupation in France during World War II. Çekil’s

efforts to exhibit more than one work together

started with his exhibition at Beaux-art in Paris. In

one of its small galleries designated for small-scale

exhibitions he exhibited four of his works together:

Iron Earth Copper Sky, Resistant Areas, The

Heating Coil and Resistance in a Capillary Long

Tube, Resistance: in Memory of a Dead Mattress

[13 ].

Figure 3. Private Exhibition of a Group of Works at

École des Beaux-Arts: Resistance: in Memory of a

Dead Mattress (1974), Iron Earth Copper Sky (1975),

Resistant Areas (1975), The Heating Coil and

Resistance in a Capillary Long Tube (1975). From

SALT Research’s Cengiz Çekil Archive [14 ]

The conceptual artist may intend to fix the

emphasis for materiality or may want to use it

paradoxically. Whatever the intention is, an art

approach of this nature requires the highest

economy of materials. If an idea is better presented

in two dimensions, a three dimensional application

should be out of question. The ideas may be

expressed through numbers, photographs, words or

any other medium the artist prefers, the

object/material stands beside the point [15 ]. In this

context Cengiz Çekil generated his concepts without

focusing on a particular material or dimension.

Figure 4. Yellow Rubber, 2013 [17 ]

In his exhibition “What Time Is It?” (Figure 5),

he brought a series of his works together, which all

concentrate on the same causal questions. This

installation reminds of his work-series called

‘Unlettered’ (1975-1977) in which he used

newspaper for the first time as a material. What

Time Is It? displays for one week, newspaper sheets

chosen from Hürriyet (a Turkish local paper), which

J Art Arch Stud. 9(1): 23-29, 2020

consistently produces life-dominant dynamics and

indicators identified by mainstream media. On

these sheets behind a glass frame stands a semi-

transparent bold face ‘What Time Is It?’ question.

Although it is hard to read the news behind this

glass and letters, it is still visible. The abundance of

images and words on the sheets points out the life’s

preciousness and fragility by countless repetition of

the same question which interrogates the meaning

of daily routine [13 ].

The Japanese artist On Kawara’s postcards and

telegrams he daily sent to his friends and colleagues

bearing messages like “I GOT UP”, “I AM STILL

ALIVE”, “I Went I Met” and Çekil’s Diary use

similar languages to declare that they are still alive.

While Kawara sent his messages to his friends, Çekil

kept an abstract diary of the days he survived just

for himself [13 ].

Figure 6. Cengiz Çekil “Diary”, 2011 [20 ]

In Çekil’s works, spatial concerns stay in the

background. For the installations of the artist, the

environment serves merely as a platform to convey

his opinions.

Figure 5. Cengiz Çekil, What Time Is It?, 2008

Harald Szeemann’s famous exhibition “When

Attitudes Become Form” (1969) has been a ground

breaking curatorial application, manifesting the

transformative nature of art language. Since the

common trait of movements like Concept Art, Arte

Povera, Fluxus etc. is that the artwork is merely a

medium which conveys the energy, ideas and

notions to the audience. Thereby, the artwork

eludes materiality and experiences a transit journey.

The materials Çekil has used in Paris reveal that

they experienced the same transit journey with

Szeemann’s, and at the same time that he files with

Joseph Beuys [13 ]. What makes Çekil successful in

this field is his approach to material. Converting the

right material into an art object can only be a good

artist’s achievement. The risk of appreciating the

physicalism of a material on such a scale, lyes

behind its potential to become the notion of the

artwork [16 ].

Cengiz Çekil’s first retrospective took place at

Rampa in May-July 2010 and it has been the artist’s

largest exhibition. Curated by Vasıf Kortun, this

exhibition gathered all of the works the artist

produced between 1974 and 2010 [14 ]. While

participating a wide range of exhibitions at home

and abroad, the artist served at the same as an

academic and trained hundreds of students. The

artist, who passed away on the 11th of November

2015, gained an important place in the history of

Turkish Contemporary Art.

112 pieces, each piece 56×75.7cm [18 ]

The artist stamped every night before sleeping

on a diary he bought in 1976 these statement: “I Am

Still Alive” (Figure 6) and wrote the date.

Representing

diary

the

individual

world/cosmology, this work entered the permanent

collection of MoMa in 2011. The diaries that

chronologically historicise a person’s subjective

adventure might be regarded as maps of the inner

world. Through “I Am Still Alive”, Cengiz Çekil

mythicise his inner world which has to squirm

before the external world. The Left vs. Right

movements in Turkey in 1980s, current political

conflicts and the tension generated by domestic

policy led up to 12 September 1980 upheavals. As

standing in the middle of such an insecure

environment he actually, instead of meaning that he

is still alive, wants to say that he coincidentally did

not die that day. He summarized a pure world which

sprouts in the middle of an internal conflict in

which living is possible simply by accident [19 ].

Concepts and language are tightly knit,

therefore, conceptual art is a practice that uses

material to verbalize the concepts. While music

consists primarily of tone, conceptual art’s

substance is language [16 ]. Thus Çekil’s ‘Diary’ is a

significant example in the context of language’s

potential to convey the notion.

Suyum and Zöngür, 2020

CONCLUSION

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no

competing interests.

This research quotes briefly the period when

Conceptual Art emerged and the artistic

environment in that period. Conceptual Art arose in

1960s and has been an effective art approach until

the end of 1980s. Within this subject, leading artists

of this movement and their works have been

mentioned. As one of the most effective names of

Conceptual Art in Turkey, Cengiz Çekil’s art

perception and works have been examined. Through

his 45 years art career he never gravitated to the

vanity and dynamics of the art community. His

main objective has always been to witness the recent

past and hand it down to the future through images.

He has quite a few works which he has not been able

to exhibit due to various reasons. Granted that his

art is an intellectual process, he never regarded art

as a materialistic medium. In order to truly realize

the art practice he narrated his life experience from

a boy by exploiting unconventional materials. Prof.

Dr. Fevziye Eyigör, member of Atatürk University,

mentioned within her article published in the

journal ‘Sanat Dünyamız’ (Our World of Art) that

Çekil has been regarded as the representative of the

hidden history of 1970s current art and the ‘Father

of Contemporary Art’ [21]. Cengiz Çekil soon

comprehended the idea of Conceptual Art. During

an interview with Necmi Sönmez he said that

fleamarkets are like design museums and he

provides the materials he needs from these markets.

His work ‘Diary’, in which he included a big part of

his life and ongoing since 1967, was selected for the

permanent collection of MoMa, the most famous

Modern Art Museum New York, shortly before his

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[18] Cultural

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F.N. Suyum is the lead author of the

manuscript. She provided the background and the

body of the work. C. Zöngür performed general

overwide, analytical interpretation of the work,

developed the abstract and conclusion sections.

Both the authors directly participated in analysis of

this study, and have read and approved the final

version submitted.

https://sanat.ykykultur.com.tr/sergiler/cengiz-cekil-

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