Alma Ausente 1959

Erol Akyavaş created this painting, Alma Ausente, with a muted palette where ghostly figures seem to emerge from a hazy background. Looking at it, I can imagine Akyavaş layering the paint, almost like he was excavating a hidden image. There’s this central form, a sort of floating island of intricate patterns and textures, anchored by delicate, root-like lines that trail downwards. I wonder if he was thinking about memory, absence, and the way things fade and transform over time, as indicated by the title itself, which means Absent Soul. That little cluster of red hues near the center feels like a flicker of emotion, a raw nerve exposed. Maybe Akyavaş saw painting as a way to make the invisible visible. For me, this piece invites us to embrace ambiguity, to find beauty in the unresolved, much like the abstract expressionists did, and, like them, he was probably interested in the poetics of space and place, as you can see in the work of other Turkish artists. Ultimately, painting is an ongoing conversation across time, where artists inspire one another's creativity.