Sıtkı Olçar who signs his works as Sıtkı Usta (Master) which goes beyond the borders and reach to the most secret lands, told about the adventure of the earth after it has been baked, the language of the colors and the amazing story of ceramics.
Just like the works he shaped out in his hands; he took a new course of life which began in Kütahya and he has become the master of tiles. Besides according to Sıtkı Olçar the art of tile is innate in souls of people in Kütahya... What’s left is to reveal this out and that’s what he has been doing. After realizing that he doesn’t want to be interested in something else any more, he gathers masters İsmail Usta and Bahattin Usta together and tries to find his own way in his own atelier. He works eighteen hours a day and today especially in Japan he is more well-known than the Emperor according to the rumors.
We talked about the change of the earth into colors in a warm, beautiful Istanbul evening and in charming as well as enchanting atmosphere of Zeyrekhane with Sıtkı Olçar whose works are followed and appreciated in Turkey especially by Rahmi Koç.
How did the desire for ceramics begin in your life and what did you feel?
In fact, I was working in storehouse staff of Kütahya Municipality. I have worked for four years for an American company in the construction of Kütahya Thermal Power Plant after I had returned from military service. Then I opened a tile shop nearby the city centre. Kütahya already has the art of tile in its origin. Also I like history and human relations. I have worked both in that company and ran this shop. Then I realized that things I want cannot be made by the craftsmen. I look for different forms and designs. But I was only a child and didn’t have an effective capital and I opened an atelier named Osmanlı Çini (Ottoman tile) below our house. I still work there. Since I didn’t know much about the tile and ceramics then, I hired my masters: Abdülmender Usta, Bahattin Usta, İsmail Usta… In this atelier where I had started to work in 1973, we worked on new things for instance Iznik imitations which we call blue-white..I used to come to Istanbul frequently to meet Faik Kırımlı, the great master of this art and bring his pencil drawings to Kütahya. I have learnt a lot from him. Also I have learnt the technique of baking in a wood oven from Hamza Mehmet Üstünkaya, one of the earliest tile masters of Kütahya. However the process wasn’t that easy at all. It took years. I gradually found my own path. I attracted especially the non-muslims’s attention as new products come into being. They began to take my works abroad. I naturally wasn’t aware of the fact that I have started a movement then. I took the drawings of many skilled people and masters and then put into form. I opened my first exhibition in 1980 in Bursa Akbank Art Gallery. It created a tremendous impression and went on incessantly. Thus and so started the exhibitions chain. In the meantime I went on working 18 hours a day. I especially searched the museums and did some ethnographic research. I examined archeological and neolithic ages and brought out works in their forms. In 1987 I was sent to Greece by the state. I did research on tiles in Rhodes. Since therefore began my overseas experience. I opened exhibition in Japan for seven times.
As you learnt how to bake earth, what happened in your life later on?
I have always loved nature. I love living in nature. My life passed in a non-stop rush up to now. I opened exhibitions everywhere. I worked. Yet I noticed new objects while I worked. I realised that important forms, layers exist in archeological heritage. I was particularly inspired by the kitchen equipments. All the more, I started to work on different styles. I produced few works over many years and this attracted the collectioners’ attention. Then I realized that I have to study on new things constantly. For example I made tucker-bag. It’s a product existed in Ottoman and European cuisines. Still I was impressed by the entire history. As a result I not only got tired but also was motivated to discover new things. I exchanged ideas with professors and artists. I am mentally more matured now. You begin to see and seek for the beauty as the time went by. It’s the same in daily life, too. I was interested in horses in due time. I made horse-formed tiles. Collectioners abroad buy them with relish. Finally my opinions about the tiles in Sultanahmet Mosque were published in one of the old issues of National Geographic. Most people think that those tiles are from Iznik but art historians claim those works are Kütahya tiles made in Iznik style. Those ceramic works are laid down magnificently. As sunbeams reflect inside the windows you see a new design in the mosque every single hour.
You put your signature on your internationally appreciated works only as ‘Sıtkı Usta’ and I guess you call yourself ‘Sıtkı Usta’ I want to learn why?
When I started this job Ersin Alok a world-famous photographer invited me to his office in Istanbul. He made me sign thousands of parchment papers as ‘Sıtkı’. He chose one of them –the one which is slightly upwards and said ‘This is your brand from now on; continue with this brand, you don’t need to write Kütahya again’. All the tiles I worked on were unique. There is not another example. Thereby, Sıtkı brand came out. We studied on image making in a sense. I took this brand’s patent out. And it still goes on...
Do you have an apprentice or apprentices? What’s necessary to be an apprentice?
Yes,I do. Mustafa Hoşnut the Associate Professor of 18 Mart Çanakkale University was one of my apprentices. While he was a student in Kütahya University he wouldn’t go even if I dismiss. He wrote about my life in his thesis. It was really nice. Hüseyin Karaosmanoğlu, the lecturer in The Art of History and Restoration Department in Dumlupınar University, took pains with me and worked as an apprentice for many years. There was another girl living in California,too. I don’t have apprentices more than 3 or 4. People come here mostly for training but choose to leave as soon as they gain the first skills; they let it go at that. Besides, learning this job takes a long time. It’s important to coach an apprentice. Needless to say that, I don’t hide my art from people… For instance, my daughters aren’t definitely interested in this job. They just don’t wonder about it. They don’t participate in this work… People manifest themselves. A man who has enough eagerness for this job, never gets bored, carries on struggling no matter how rigid the earth is. As for the other, it’s no sooner that you realize he’s lost interest and gone.
Could you please tell us the Phrygia tours that you have been organizing for years by name ‘A Night in the Valley’?
We have made Phrygia Valley tours for 18 years. Rock’n Coke Festival is going to be held in this valley next autumn. Most sponsors and politicians promised to help. I have a cave house that I built in 1987. One night is spent there in the tour. We’re setting up a tent camp. People were coming to join us from all over Turkey and mostly from big cities. We were responsible for the sheltering and safety. But I feel disappointed recently. Even though our current and previous Minister of Culture called from Ankara and congratulated us, local bureaucrats remain distant.
We don’t collect a fee for these tours. People come early in the morning and we all tour the heights of İncik Village and the Genoa Castle made by Genoese’s in early years. We climb together with 50 to 100 people by local mountaineers. At night we make fire and listen to music. Fire is on till dawn. There are people familiar to each other as well as the ones who meet each other at that trip. We walk around the local places and neighboring caves. They bring books together with them to give to the villagers. A nice sharing is experienced. The roads of the village were asphalted thanks to these tours.
How have things been going on your studies upon İznik Red of which result is awaited impatiently? I suppose there were people that committed suicide for finding the Iznik Red? What’s the secret of this red?
To tell the truth, this red is available in Bursa mines. There is a kind of earth with iron oxide in Kütahya. We have been using it. Everybody loves to reach the unreachable places. Coral red is something like this. I have tried for it for eight years; it’s hard to reach a result. Then a German scientist came along and warned me saying ‘You inhale excessive radiation. You don’t have necessary equipments to be protected against all these. You should quit’. So I quitted. Sometime I made tiles from the dust and glasses of mosaics on the floor since I really like archaeology. At first people of course found it hard to admit.
In my opinion; the Iznik red came from the Silk Road from the Far East. Japanese have beautiful tiles and beautiful reds. Aforesaid red of ours has been used for 60 years. When you visit the Metropolitan museum you can see that the same red was used in some of Iran and Iraqi tiles in the same period. People in this geography were using stannic oxidized glaze. While the Silk Road period was ending over, Porcelain was blossoming in Europe in the late 17th century. Thus demand for tiles in Kütahya and İznik began to fade away. So Iznik red vanished. Of course it’s my idea. Among us Faik Kırımlı was interested most in this subject and gained result. As for the suicide legend we all easterners believe in legends inwardly. A man bakes himself in oven and gets the coral red out of his body which he has been searching for. These are stories which have no scientific base.
There are rumors that you work on a very special study for Istanbul, 2010 Cultural Capital of Europe and that you keep it as a secret. Can you please give a clue about it?
We will have a common study with the Art Gallery of Fevziye Schools Foundation. I am supposed to open an exhibition in 2010 there. I would like to study culture of religions on floor tiles in 80 cm diameters. I will study churches, mosques and synagogues in tile colors. Istanbul is a place where many religions existed. I don’t know about the other places but in Istanbul people live together for centuries. I suppose this study will be 25 or 33 pieces. I don’t intend to make more works than this. Again they will be in unique examples. They wouldn’t be alike or copy of something else and that’s good enough for me.
Your studies on tucker-bags excited most people. Do you have new projects like this?
In the following days I will transmit the ‘şenlikname’s inherited from Ottomans into tiles. It will be a collection of 30 works. The Ottomans and now Turkey… We live in a very rich land indeed. Art comes out of every stone that you move. Normally the tiles are first jigged and then printed on paper and worked on again and again. But I work in a different way. I don’t jig my drawings. Last year I opened an exhibition in Çırağan Palace applying the same technique. I am doing preparations nowadays to open an exhibition next year on 16th of September in Algeria.
Does the soil of Kütahya really make difference in Ceramics? Will you ever think of opening a shop in another city?
The earth of Kütahya enlivens in our souls. I don’t ever think of working in another city. Kaolin clay earth... Kaolin is available everywhere now but in the past it used to exist only in this land. The art of tile-making dates back to 14th century in Kütahya. Kütahya has a tough weather. In other words, this is a land, people of which deal with trim works in early centuries. The population in Kütahya used to be cosmopolite 200 years ago, Greeks, Armenians, Circassians… That’s why the art of tile-making developed a lot in this multi-cultural land. I love Kütahya. Lakes, ascents are only in half an hour distance by walking. This is a great wealth. But for simple reasons my show room nearby the city centre is wanted to be destructed by local ministers and politicians. Those who are reluctant to advance art try to obstruct and depress us.
If you decide to do a study on Istanbul, what would it be like, what kind of a work would come off?
History of religions… There are well-stones in Grand Bazaar. I would use them. If I decide to make a soap dish I would make use of marble basins in gorgeous Turkish baths here. This city has a soul. Galata Tower, the Bosphorus… To live by this richness wouldn’t cost a lot at all.
What do you see when you come to Istanbul? How would you describe Istanbul?
When I visit the palaces and mosques I feel like I am in a mythical world. I am trying to resolve the secrets of decayed works in cisterns, and especially the beauty of Bosphorus illumined at nights. Istanbul has a large art community. Learning, living here and seeing new things day after day makes excites me.
Written By: Behice Özden
In Istanbul
www.istanbul.com/inistanbul
