Mubin Orhon

Galerie Lucien Durand, Paris
Private Collection, Paris

Colour: The colours in the catalogue are fairly accurate though they are sharper in the actual work. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals rub marks along the edges, especially to the top and bottom-left corners. Canvas is very slightly slack. No restoration is apparent under UV light.
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Mubin Orhon is regarded as one of the most important Turkish artists of the twentieth century. A major proponent of the abstract expressionist style in Turkey, Mubin's greatest influence was the Parisien style of abstract expressionism known as Tachism. Studying economics at the Sorbonne in 1948, he established himself in the French capital and founded a studio of Turkish artists that included the sculptor Ilhan Koman, whose work is also featured in this auction (please see lot 48).

Spontaneity and intuitive expression places Mubin within the framework of the Art Informel movement that championed an impulsive approach to artistic expression. Working with a loaded brush, Mubin would produce large sweeping brushstrokes across his canvas, creating a sense of movement, even of urgency, always executed with grace.

Mubin Orhon's powerful works are profound expressions of emotion through the medium of colour. His innate understanding of colour and its psychological influence is almost supernatural, and his canvases do not fail to pack an emotional punch. The German nineteenth century polymath Johann van Goethe was fascinated by colour, and published a treatise on the subject in 1810 in which he states that colours produced an effect on the mind. Although colour associations and chromotherapy is dismissed as an alternative medicine by contemporary scientists and psychiatrists, it is hard not to look upon this canvas and feel stimulated by the palette.

In this painting Mubin Orhon utilises various shades of the same burnt reds and browns, ochres and oranges; he highlights and enhances the bed-rock red with contrasting sweeps of greens, and opposing yellows and blues. These hot colours sweep across the canvas in an inferno of brushstrokes that suggest rage and passion.

This rare and important painting is an outstanding example of Mubin Orhon's early work.