Anadolu Ekininde Güzeller (Beauties of the Anatolian Harvest) is a series of ceramic sculptures that Şeref Doğan created from Anatolia’s millennia-old cultural memory and from the human images left by the civilisations that lived in this land.
The human figure lies at the heart of the series; yet the figure is taken away from being a directly depicted body and gradually transformed into a purified, abstract and organic form. As the defining details of face, hand or body disappear, what remains is a vertical stance, a curve, a volume and a void that still suggest the human. In this way the idea of the figure inherited from the past is carried into a contemporary plastic language.
“Nüve / Nucleus”, which holds an important place in Doğan’s art, also forms the underlying idea of this series. Rather than reproducing the images of past civilisations, the artist seeks to reach their essence. As the form is stripped of detail it becomes simpler; as it becomes simpler it moves away from belonging to a particular time or culture and turns into a more universal image of the human.
In a series made up of single, paired and triple figures, verticality forms a shared formal language, while curving surfaces, opening and closing volumes, and the voids between the figures or within their own bodies give the sculptures movement. The work is not completed from a single viewpoint; as the viewer walks around the sculpture the silhouette changes, new voids appear and the form takes shape anew.
The ceramic surfaces show different treatments, ranging from reddish and earthy tones to light, dark and metallic effects. The marks left by fire and the firing process give some works a more archaic and timeless character, while in others they become contemporary surfaces that change with the light. Texture and colour are used not to overshadow the form but to strengthen its movement and volume.
Rather than rebuilding the forms of the past, Anadolu Ekininde Güzeller explores the essence they carry. The human image distilled from Anatolia’s cultural memory is reshaped within Şeref Doğan’s plastic approach built on simplicity, purity and dynamism. In the series, the “beautiful” is no longer an idealised body; it becomes the essence of the human that remains in memory, freed from time and detail.