The Great Breakthrough 1976

Burhan Dogancay made this vibrant painting, The Great Breakthrough, with bold colors and graphic shapes. It really strikes me as a painting about making a painting. Look at the red! The way Dogancay uses it, so flat and direct, feels almost confrontational. Then you have these angular shapes, like a collage but all painted. It is kind of like the way that David Hockney uses flat planes of colour. See how the "torn" element at the top adds a layer of illusion? The artist teases the viewer by suggesting depth on a very flat surface. That little white line, slicing through the composition, it's like a sudden, sharp realization. A breakthrough! Much like the work of the surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, Dogancay creates an alien landscape, populated by abstract shapes that spark the imagination and invite contemplation. Ultimately, this painting is an invitation to see and think differently.