The famous artist Matthew Krishanu and Courtauld Gallery Educator are exhibiting the painted portrait of Yaşar İsmailoğlu with watercolour painting done back in 2009.
Mr. Krishanu stated he met the Turkish- Cypriot poet only for the portrait and that he didn’t know of him before. The poet was selected by the Hackney Transients Art Project for him to draw and show the different personalities that reside in Hackney. The portrait of İsmailoğlu captures the experience of painting a place and a person that has been seen for the first time and for only one purpose. Krishanu talks about his experience with İsmailoğlu “Yaşar stares back at me – there is an air of scrutiny in his gaze, which the viewer’s eyes also meet. As I painted him he spoke to me about places he had lived in, and poetry collections he had written. He sat with great confidence – firmly planted in his back garden, surrounded by things that grounded him.”
Matthew Krishanu
Krishanu 13th image features İsmailoğlu on a 31X23cm watercolour images, took place in an informal setting the artist didn’t not use a easel but used his leg to prop up his paper pad on which “the painting is of a man at home in his clothes and surroundings. He tilts his chair towards me, relaxes his arms, and watches me paint.” the painting was painted in İsmailoğlu home in Edmonton. The portrait of İsmailoğlu is on show at The Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, a specialist college of the University of London and is housed in Somerset House.
Yaşar İsmailoğlu
