Sarkis Signed Anonymous

ANONYMOUS SIGNATURE

What is anonymous? From the Greek word onoma (name); name, identity unknown. Someone who has hidden his name, identity, wants his work to be known, but does not want the creator, copyer, in other words, himself, to be known, hidden behind his work, completely hidden, choosing nothingness. A kind of "unknown soldier". Like the history of countries, art history is full of anonymous artists. Especially before the Renaissance. We do not know the names of the creators of hundreds of thousands of sculptures, paintings, architectural structures that we look at with admiration today. Many of them have been attributed names, identities, and even life stories later. For example, one of the biggest question marks in our art history, the name Siyah Kalem, is such an attribution. Therefore, someone who was signed "Kârı Üstad Mehmet Siyah Kalem" by the person who cut his paintings and pasted them into the Palace Albums, but still maintained his anonymity and anonymity. As in the Black Pencil example, not every signed painting escapes anonymity. Just like not every unsigned work of art is anonymous. Many of Cézanne’s paintings are unsigned. The painter did not feel the need to sign these works. Why would he, the owner of the painting is written on every square centimeter. In contrast, many paintings signed by Rembrandt were not created by the great master. So, if these paintings signed by Rembrandt do not belong to Rembrandt, to whom do they belong? To no one. Or to anonima. This strange word inevitably directs us to the concept of authentique, which expresses the essence and reality of a work of art. Anonymous is not only unsigned, but also a work of art whose owner is unknown due to its style. Can such a work of art be authentique? Can we see it as an unadulterated, pure, real work of art? Looking for the signature in a painting is looking for the person behind it, nothing else. A signature is a sign, a mark, or an endorsement of the person who created that work: This painting was made by me.

It is not the signature that reflects the person and the historical period, social structure and culture from which they emerged, but the work itself. However, in the art of the primitives, which is not primitive at all, we do not look for a signature or a sign. Not because we know that it does not exist, but because we do not see it as necessary. We know that they are both anonymous and collective. A signature is undoubtedly an individual sign. I know writers who want to remain anonymous, but who see the impossibility of this and hide behind a pseudonym. And I have also known painters who do not sign the paintings they make / do not feel the need to sign / do not dare to sign / who exalt their art too much in their eyes and do not see themselves in that exaltation. Were the ones who made these paintings that Sarkis "signed" from among them? We do not know. Did they never sign all the paintings they made? We do not know. So, what do these painters, who are different from each other, who come from different periods and different cultures, if not from different geographies, have in common? I must admit that these are not paintings that will make you wonder about the answer to such questions. What caught my attention in this "incident" is Sarkis's dream of a signature for these anonymous paintings he saw in Rafi Portakal's "antique shop". Sarkis is one of those who believe that there is a hidden signature in every painting, big or small, important or unimportant, signed or unsigned, attributed to a known artist or not. Sarkis has an eye that can see the painter in a shape, a color, a light, a spot in the painting. He must believe that the anonymous artist's personality is inevitably reflected in every work whose name he does not know, that none of us know. Thus, instead of making up names for the artists of these paintings, he gives them a neon signature. Both his own signature and that hidden signature that was not given for whatever reason. Thus, with Sarkis' creativity, anonymity does not acquire a name, but more importantly, it turns into a new work of art. Like Borges, who took a handful of sand from the Sinai Desert, threw it into the air and said, "I changed the desert," Sarkis is one of the contemporary artists who knows best how the smallest "intervention" can change both reality and the work.

Ferit Edgu