EROL ETİ – ARTIST INTERVIEW
Prepared by ARTTMODERNMIAMI GAZETTE
The Contemporary Voice of Art, Culture and Life
Art sometimes speaks through a color, sometimes through a line, and sometimes through an image that remains in our minds for years. Spanning more than six decades, Prof. Erol Eti’s artistic journey is shaped by a distinctive visual language built around geometry, color, memory, and nature.
Inspiring generations as both an artist and an academic, Erol Eti brings Anatolia’s deep-rooted cultural heritage together with a contemporary and universal perspective. In this special interview, ARTTMODERNMIAMI GAZETTE invites readers to discover the artist’s world, his ideas, and the journey leading to his latest retrospective exhibition, Düşünen Göz 2 (The Thinking Eye 2), in his own words.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Who is Erol Eti? How would you introduce yourself, in your own words, to the international readers of ARTTMODERNMIAMI GAZETTE?
— EROL ETİ: I am an artist and academic who served at the Istanbul State School of Applied Fine Art ( today known as Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts) from 1963 to 2020. Throughout my academic career, I held positions including Dean, Head of the Painting Department, and Director. I also pioneered the establishment of the Institute of Fine Arts and the departments of Basic Art Education, Traditional Turkish Arts, and Photography.
I served as an art advisor to the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye and represented Türkiye on international platforms, including the Council of Europe’s Committee on Movable Cultural Heritage. In my artistic practice, I work with techniques and materials such as reverse-glass and reverse-mirror painting, oil paint, acrylic, and silver and gold leaf, developing a geometric and abstract language that brings rational thought and imagination together.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: How did your relationship with art begin? At what point in your life did you realize that art would become more than a profession;a way of life?
— EROL ETİ: For me, art is a holistic journey that pursues thought rather than form, and what remains in memory rather than what is merely visible. Throughout my years as both an educator and an artist, I followed the fundamental forms, primary colors, and balance found in nature, transforming art into an academic and intellectual realm of existence.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Looking back after such a long artistic career, what do you consider the greatest difference between the young Erol Eti’s understanding of art and your perspective today?
— EROL ETİ: Over the years, the language I developed came to rest upon an axis of infinity that exists independently of its individual parts. From my youth to the present, I have achieved a mature sense of unity at the intersection of architectural memory and geometry; one that addresses both the power and fragility of nature through mathematical precision and abstract depth.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Geometry, color, line, and form create a powerful visual language in your work. Is geometry simply an aesthetic structure for you, or is it also a way of understanding the world and humanity?
— EROL ETİ: Geometry is not merely an aesthetic structure; it is the fundamental alphabet of the visual arts and a method of making sense of the world. The Bauhaus approach to form and color composition, as well as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s book Geometry, written in 1937, profoundly influenced my intellectual world. I regard geometric forms and primary colors as a fundamental alphabet, seeking aesthetic and conceptual balance within a geometric space built upon mathematical foundations.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Universal concepts such as time, space, memory, and infinity are central to your work. Which of these concepts most strongly nourishes your art, and why?
— EROL ETİ: These concepts cannot be considered separately; however, architectural memory and the axis of infinity form the backbone of my work. Rather than capturing momentary images, my works explore the traces that remain in memory and the relationship between time and space through layers of line, color, and texture on an abstract plane.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Your art brings rational thought and imagination together. When creating a work, what is your starting point: an idea, an emotion, an image, or intuition?
— EROL ETİ: The starting point of my work is thought and mathematical construction. Guided by a vision rooted in the Bauhaus, I bring rational thought and imagination together in balance. Upon this structure, I build the movement of colors concealed within nature’s geometry, alongside expressions drawn from the inner world.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Your contemporary reinterpretations of traditional reverse-glass painting are also an important part of your artistic journey. How should an artist engage with tradition? Is it possible to create something new while preserving the past?
— EROL ETİ: It is absolutely possible. I pioneered the reinterpretation of reverse-glass painting—an ancient Anatolian craft—through innovative and contemporary techniques in Türkiye, helping carry this tradition into the future. Tradition should not simply be repeated as it was. Its depth, chromatic vitality, and essence should be preserved while being translated into the language of contemporary art.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Alongside your identity as an artist, you have also played an important role as an educator and academic for many years. How have Erol Eti the artist and Erol Eti the educator nourished one another? Have you also learned from your students?
— EROL ETİ: While establishing and directing the departments of Basic Art Education and Traditional Turkish Arts in Türkiye, I always kept education and studio practice closely connected. As I taught the fundamental principles of design, my students’ experimental work and the tangible reflections of the Bauhaus approach continually kept my own academic and artistic vision alive.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: An essential part of art education is “learning how to see.” Do you believe seeing can be taught? Can an artist learn to see differently over time?
— EROL ETİ: Seeing is the discipline of learning to read geometry; the alphabet of the visual arts, along with primary colors and the interaction of forms found in nature. With a strong foundation in art education, one’s perception can be deepened. Over time, an artist learns to recognize the architectural memory and the idea of infinity that exist beyond the visible.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: The art world is undergoing a rapid transformation through digital technologies, social media, and artificial intelligence. Do you believe technology enriches the language of art, or does it create new challenges by changing the relationship between the artist and the artwork?
— EROL ETİ: Regardless of how much technical tools change, the rational structure, balance of form and color, and intellectual depth at the heart of art remain decisive. As long as technology is regarded as a tool and the conceptual essence and timeless aesthetic of the work are preserved; it can enrich artistic expression.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Art is often described as a “universal language.” Do you believe there truly is an artistic language capable of transcending cultures and geographies? What allows the work of an artist raised in Türkiye to connect simultaneously with viewers in New York, Miami, Paris, Tokyo, or Istanbul?
— EROL ETİ: The language of forms, colors, nature’s fragility, and humanity’s search for infinity is universal. When Anatolia’s deep-rooted visual memory is combined with an abstract texture, viewers anywhere in the world can connect directly with that shared human memory and universal sense of beauty.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: In today’s international art world, visibility, the art market, personal branding, and social media have become increasingly important alongside the art itself. Amid all this, what is the true measure of enduring art?
— EROL ETİ: The measure of permanence lies beyond popular trends: in intellectual consistency that withstands time and in a strong academic and aesthetic foundation. Works that remain in the memory and establish an original formal language capable of transcending time and space are the ones that endure.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Your latest exhibition, Düşünen Göz 2, brings together works from different periods of your career. When you encounter a work you created many years ago, do you still view it as the artist who made it, or have you also become one of its viewers?
— EROL ETİ: Encountering these works again within the unity of a retrospective allows me both to witness the continuity of my own thinking as their creator and to establish new dialogues with them as a viewer, through a visual language that has gained its independence. The works come together along an axis of infinity, acquiring a timeless existence independent of the artist.
— ARTTMODERNMIAMI: Finally, if you could leave the readers of ARTTMODERNMIAMI GAZETTE around the world with one thought, why do human beings need art?
— EROL ETİ: Human beings need art to go beyond what is visible, to transcend the boundaries of time and space, and to follow the traces of infinity within memory and the soul.
DÜŞÜNEN GÖZ 2 — EROL ETİ
Art lovers wishing to explore Erol Eti’s artistic world more closely can visit the artist’s latest retrospective exhibition, Düşünen Göz 2 (The Thinking Eye 2).
Bringing together works from different periods of the artist’s career, the exhibition offers a comprehensive view of Erol Eti’s artistic vision, academic legacy, and distinctive understanding of geometric space. Combining natural and geometric forms, the works reflect an artistic language shaped around the concepts of space, time, memory, and infinity.
Exhibition: Düşünen Göz 2
Artist: Prof. Erol Eti
Opening: September 3, 2026
Closing Date: October 13, 2026
Venue: Şevket Sabancı Culture and Arts Center
Location: Turgutreis, Bodrum, Türkiye
Prepared by ARTTMODERNMIAMI GAZETTE
–The Contemporary Voice of Art, Culture and Life-
