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Buy/gift a digital subscription Login to the Digital Edition‘Hulda is my sculpture,’ declared İlhan Koman of his beloved schooner. Forger of many iron abstractions, and for many years in self-imposed exile in Stockholm, Koman is an important figure in the world of modern sculpture in Turkey and beyond. The photographer Annette Louise Solakoğlu tells his story and explores his vision
In the late summer of 2022, I spent a memorable evening on a Swedish sailing boat, the MS Hulda, docked at the old Ottoman shipyard on Istanbul’s Golden Horn. The venerable two-masted schooner, crafted from oak and pine more than a century ago, was moored between the Barış Manço and the İsmail Hakkı Durusu, two iconic Bosphorus ferries under repair. As a seasoned Swede anchored in Istanbul myself, I felt an immediate sense of belonging aboard, intrigued by the Swedish-Turkish connection. And so began my journey into the life and work of the schooner’s legendary owner, a Turkish artist who had lived for many years in voluntary exile in Sweden until his death in 1986.
İlhan Koman occupies a distinctive position in the realm of modern sculpture in Turkey and beyond. His sculptural objects, while rooted in minimalism, span a variety of styles, materials and methodologies. He is represented in several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Stockholm’s Moderna Museet (Modern Art Museum) and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris.
At the heart of İlhan Koman’s artistic vision was the desire to explore the intersection of art and science. For the last 20 years of his life, he immersed himself in geometrical studies, applying complex mathematical formulae to his art. This interdisciplinary approach led scholars and admirers to liken him to a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci. And yet nothing in his body of work brought him more pride than his schooner. “Hulda is my greatest sculpture,” Koman often declared…
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