Portrait of Ozden Selenge as an artist.(Biography)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to provide a biographical portrait of Ozden Selenge as an exceptionally talented Cypriot woman who has reflected her artistic abilities both in her paintings and literary writings.

It is a known fact that in the evolution of art, women had always played an important part although they usually remained anonymous in their efforts. This is also true in the evolution of Cypriot art although the case For the male artists is not much different. There is a rapid development in the evolution of Turkish Cypriot art and literature during the second half of the twentieth century which I believe is worth recording now at this time of Cyprus cultural history.

Ozden Selenge is a distinguished artist as measured by success both in her paintings as well as an author whose name deserves to be mentioned among the contemporary Turkish Cypriot artists. Selenge is one of the rare artists who expresses her feelings, emotions and fantasies imaginative both in her paintings as well as her writings similtaneaously. In spite of the fact that she made her first standing in Turkish Cypriot art with her naive paintings in miniature series that can be considered also selected examples of folk art, like many Cypriot artist she also prefered to paint in abstract expressionist manner. Although Selenge primarily used canvas and oil paint since the beginning of her art, she has recently used hand made paper as the medium for her paintings similar to her writing. Her palette is rather rich with the variety of colour, hues and values in each painting forming complex meaning in her painting as in her writing. She changed the colour at virtually each picture in a way similar the variety of her characters and stories narrated in her books. Her birds happily sing the song of spring while they are perched upon the trees or on the old houses, and her heroes and heroines sometimes occupy the whole surface or sometimes hide behind the doors or walls of the old Cypriot houses, which reflect the memories of the past. She produced all these paintings in her usual naive folk art style.

The presentation of Cypriot artists and writers is not sufficient by merely opening exhibitions and publications of their works. Writing biographies of these personalities based upon objective observations as well as a thorough research is essential both for their representations in the country and abroad as well recording them in the cultural history of the island for the future generations. We hope that this study, which may be considered as the first of its kind provides a detailed biography of a Cypriot artist and would be followed by work that would form a historical record for coming generations.