Fadime Baltacıoğlu

The Drawing of Fadime Baltacıoğlu

Önder ŞENYAPILI Istanbul Emlak Art Gallery Catalog, 2000: 3-4

Seven years ago, on the occasion of an exhibition, Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman stated that she reached the rules of beauty through a synthesis of accumulated knowledge and intuition. She stated that she had taken all the necessary lessons, learned painting techniques, and mastered the main rules of painting; however, whether it be drawing, watercolor, or oil painting, when she sets out to paint, she does not think of anything she has learned or mastered, but only listens to her inner voice, which always tells her what to do. Yet, when looking at her drawings, watercolors, or oil paintings, it immediately becomes clear that she listened intently to her teacher Cuda during her early years of education; for instance, she examined her model meticulously as he repeatedly advised, and learned very well what to discard and what to keep when composing her painting, as well as how to frame her object or objects.

For Fadime, the line is truly the foundation and the backbone of the drawing, just as Bedros Reis decreed years ago. Furthermore, it is the essence and the core of her composition/arrangement. She constructs her paintings with lively, vibrating lines—the products of pens, charcoal, India ink, or brushes of varying thicknesses.

With these vibrating lines, for example, Fadime has depicted still lifes that are not dead, but living, and in a sense, even moving. "Living still lifes"... Her still lifes draw their life (or one might say, their soul) from the line. Fundamentally, every type of Fadime’s work draws its soul from the line. Not only her drawings but also her watercolors and oil paintings are works dominated by the line. That is to say, they are drawing-heavy. In Fadime’s work, drawing is—just as Degas said—an interpretation of form and nature. Nothing, no object subjected to the painting, is seen exactly as it is; it is reflected in her depictions as it is perceived, or as the artist wishes it to be seen. Furthermore, she adds a sense of lyricism to her watercolor and oil drawings by utilizing color. This lyricism is somewhat excluded in her large-scale, colorless drawings (e.g., Joseph and Zulaikha, etc.) made in what she calls her “capillary-textured linear style”; here, the concern for achieving a more expressive narrative comes to the fore. This “capillary-textured linear style” was inspired by the hair covering the human body. It is a technique conceived after seeing the thick, curly-haired arms of a male customer at a neighboring table in a café where she was sitting with a friend. On the other hand, beyond the technique itself, her large-scale drawings are also an indication that Fadime prefers the challenging path.

It must be appreciated that weaving these drawings inch by inch while climbing a portable ladder with huge sheets of paper hung on the wall—in a position that can hardly be called comfortable—is nothing like working on canvases placed on easels or papers and cardboards spread on tables. It is clear that it requires much more effort, at least physically. Moreover, those in the know understand how arduous it is to realize small fragments that will form a whole over a wide area that cannot be perceived in a single glance. In summary, what must be emphasized is this: whether in the “capillary-textured linear style” or not, Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman continues to produce works that justify Ingres, who said, “Drawing is the integrity and the abundance of art.”

A Brief Observation of Fadime Baltacıoğlu’s Art

Kıymet GİRAY

To evaluate Fadime Baltacıoğlu’s paintings, it is necessary to start with her works produced in the 1960s. At this stage, it is evident that a common sensitivity, fluid dynamism, an enthusiastic color scheme, and an expressive structure dominate her drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings. Her large-scale drawings feature compositions that examine the concerns of society. In these works, she presents society’s traditional cultural structure, life values, hope, resilience, and love within a free compositional order. In the artist's drawings, the structural integrity of the figures is achieved through a dynamic synthesis of different elements. This integrity is enveloped by a capillary texture parallel to the distribution of light and volumetric values.

The most prominent feature of Fadime Baltacıoğlu’s oil and watercolor works is an unstoppable rhythmic dynamism. This dynamism, which emphasizes the fluid exuberance of nature, objects, and life, is successfully displayed in her landscapes and still lifes. At this stage, the artist's distribution of tonal masses demonstrates a successful technique easily achieved in her watercolors. She brings a subjective approach and an original interpretation to the medium of watercolor.

A Self-Taught Painter

Prof. Dr. Ayla ERSOY

"A self-taught painter, the artist is the daughter of the famous esthetician and pedagogue Ord. Professor İsmayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu. Having developed her artistic skills through private painting lessons from Mahmud Cuda, she utilizes the line as the fundamental element of her works—not only in her drawings but also in her watercolors and oil paintings. By applying fine, thick, and flickeringly active lines with the same sensitivity regardless of whether she uses a pencil or a brush, she knows how to imbue her paintings with a living, vibrant effect through this dynamic linear rhythm, be it a flower painting, a landscape, or a figure. While the interpretation of nature emerges in the forms created by her drawings, she does not hesitate to discard redundancies. Objects and figures are utilized not as they are, but as they ought to be according to the artist. She captures a lyrical narrative quality through a textured linear style formed by very fine lines."

An Original Interpretation

Önder ŞENYAPILI Ulus: April 1985

Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman’s 17th solo exhibition opened the other day at the Evrensel Art Gallery (Mithatpaşa Cad. 24 | A). The exhibition, featuring the artist's watercolors and oil paintings, shows that the artist, starting from a solid foundation in drawing, has captured an original interpretation in almost all of her works. In both her watercolors and oil paintings, the weight of sensitivity that, in my opinion, makes a painting a true painting is as evident as can be.

Furthermore, a movement stemming from the artist's enthusiastic interpretation ensures that the subjects of the paintings are brought back to life. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman is that she possesses a brush that restores even still lifes to life. The flowers that are the subjects of the artist's still lifes appear before us with appearances that are almost more full of life than living flowers.

Vibrant, bright colors, a technique as strong as it is supportive of this vitality, and the interpretive richness stemming from this knowledge result in the painting—which generally captures a "moment"—beginning to live anew from the very instant it is captured. In Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman’s paintings, "time preserves its freshness," and the artwork continues to live its time within a brand-new temporal arrangement.

Amidst exhibitions opening as almost identical reproductions dependent on a generalizing taste, Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman’s exhibition at Evrensel consists of the soul-soothing works of an artist who resists compromising her individuality. You could also define Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman’s 17th solo exhibition at Evrensel as one that demonstrates how originality can be achieved by working without compromising one's personality.

About Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman

Nuri ABAÇ Sanat Çevresi, March 1984, Issue 65

To understand the secrets underlying Fadime’s works, it is necessary to follow her journey since her drawings of the ‘Yeni Adam’ period. With her characteristic of processing subjects chosen from various segments of society, or melodies taken from nature, she has often made these magazine covers unforgettable.

She has reached a drawing interpretation seen in few art figures. She dissects her chosen object as if laying it under a giant microscope, minutely like capillary vessels, and then reunites it within a textural aesthetic guided by her emotional personality, presenting it to the viewer with an original interpretation.

In summary, with her courage in using paint, her mastery in hiding a supple painterly beauty behind clusters of light, and her never-ending enthusiasm, Fadime Baltacıoğlu Salman is an artist of ours who has reached a symbolic personality.

Ahmet KÖKSAL Milliyet Art Magazine, March 15, 1985, Issue 92

In Fadime Baltacıoğlu’s paintings, which are formed by a free movement and occasionally enthusiastic, fierce brushstrokes, reflections of a sensitive inner life and traces of an interpretative tendency can be seen. Particularly, the simplicity, sincerity, and freshness of color found in her watercolors—the products of rapid work—not only bear witness to an unpretentious love of nature but also carry the distinctive features of a trend towards an independent personality in its own genre.

Fadime Baltacıoğlu

Biography