Exhibition at the ArtRooms in Kyrenia Feb 20 – March 11, 2015

By Heidi Trautmann

 In her introduction Oya Silbery, curator of the exhibition and founder of the ArtRooms Gallery, concludes that lithography as an art form has not been attributed the recognition it actually deserves. That is true. And she further states that the belief that true art must be on canvas is still valid due to lack of information.

There existed hardly any lithography studios in Turkey when Sinan Demirtaş graduated in painting from the University of Mimar Sinan Istanbul in 1993 when he became interested in this interesting discipline. In the same year he became director of Aksanat Art Centre Lithography Department until 2004. In 1997 he was co-founder of the Sinan Demirtaş Lithography Studio together with Hasan Yelmen, an undertaking in which he could bring in his experience and knowledge. Over the years he worked together with many artists and was acknowledged for the high quality of printing in the printing art scene.

A collection of such praised works by 24 reknown artists he now brought to Cyprus for the exhibition with ArtRooms. It is a pleasure to be given the opportunity to have such an exhibition on the island, especially since we don’t have a lithography studio here nor any printing studio. (There is the Hambis Printing Museum in the Southern part of Cyprus near Limassol and I have heard of  a newly established dependence in Nicosia).

Lithography as an artristic medium was used in the early 19th century by artists such as Delacroix and Géricault and many more later; at the end of the century we have the famous Lautrec’s lithographs, works he did for the theatre, for example. Lithography was invented in 1796 by the German author and actor Alois Senefelder for the printing of theatre scripts. Lithography which means literally ‘writing on stone’ is based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The image is painted on the smooth, especially prepared surface of limestone with oil-based ink pens; the surface was then treated with a mixture of acid and gum....a process too detailed to explain here in my review. A good printing press is required to print the image on paper for a usually limited edition which are then numbered and signed by the artist. For example 1 of 100.

The participating artists at ArtRooms are: Adnan Çoker, Antonio Cosentino, Aydin Ayan, Ayten Yetiş Doğu, Burhan Doğançay, Erdal Alantar, Ergin Inan, Ferruh Başağa, Güngör Taner, Habip Aydoğdu, Leyla Gamsiz, Mustafa Altintaş, Naile Akıncı, Ömer Uluç, Özdemir Altan, Sinan Demirtaş, Taner Ceylan, Tanju Demirci, Tomur Atagök, Tülin Onat, Turan Erol, Zahit Büyükişleyen, Zekal Ormancı.

A fine collection of lithographs by some remarkable artists.

The exhibition is on until 11 March 2015; viewing times are from 1 pm until late at night during the  restaurant hours.