Arts

Daver Darende: A Colourful Diplomat

by Sibel DORSAN

Although his career as a diplomat has carried him off to many parts of Europe and Asia, the focus of self-taught painter Daver Darende’s paintings has long been his beloved Istanbul. His warm blue world has won him an extraordinary popularity at home and abroad. Much of the credit must go to admirers in Poland - and under his own roof.

He is known as the “Painter Diplomat” or the “Istanbul Painter”. In fact, Daver Darende is a complete intellectual and artist. For 36 years from 1967 onwards, he worked for the Foreign Ministry at various levels. Now in retirement he is busy not only painting but publishing books and articles. He also has very close interest, as a listener, to music.

Şermin and Daver Darende’s home is a cheerful, cosy place. The atmosphere of love, respect and peace engulfs you straight away. The ambiance is furthered enhanced by the many beautiful paintings which cover the walls - and by the positive energy diffused by the murmuring of the pretty house-cat. It comes as no surprise to learn that Darende’s adventures with paint began on a domestic occasion.

From Munich to Warsaw

“I have always been sensitive towards all branches of art but it was a birthday surprise of my wife that caused me to begin painting,” he explains.  “In 1980 when I was Acting Consul General in Munich, my wife made a copy of Van Gogh, which impressed me very much. I started to paint portraits of women. I continued to make sketches and portraits. Later, when we returned to Ankara, I showed my paintings to a friend who simply could not believe that they had been done by me. He convinced me to exhibit them, and I opened my first personal exhibition at the Mungan Art Gallery. That was in 1982. I didn’t expect to sell any paintings but as it turned out, twelve of my forty paintings were sold.”

Appointed to Warsaw as first secretary, Darende was to strike up a friendship with the famous Turkish artist Nejat Devrim, who encouraged him further with the words: “Welcome among us”. Darende has held a total of 5 exhibitions in Poland. The first opened in the city of Gliwice. Later his work was displayed in Cracow for two consecutive years. The Poles were particularly attracted to his brightly coloured compositions on the themes of Istanbul, the Bosporus and its waterfront villas. He received an honorary diploma and bronze medal from the people of Krakow. In 1985, he exhibited in Warsaw.

Darende was subsequently appointed consul general in Tebriz. These were the years of the Iran-Iraq war. His paintings of this era, more abstract in character, were exhibited in Gdansk in 1986. Again his wife took a hand in his career. There was one painting that he was initially unsure about exhibiting, but which she insisted should go on display. It was bought by the Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts.

Home thoughts from Dubai

A posting to Dubai constiututed another turning point. For a lower of Istanbul, the waters of the Gulf could not fail to conjure up images of the Bosphorus. The disappearing Istanbul of Darende’s childhood soon came to dominate his canvases. The songs they sing are of the fascinating shore of the Straits, of a trip to the Islands, of motor boats and takas (small Black Sea boats). Among them are paintings reminiscent of old Istanbul street-plans; displaying the Bosporus in bird’s-eye view, with echoes of traditional miniature paintings. In the eye of the mind, Darende traverses the entire Istanbul shoreline, embellishing it with very slim minarets. But the mood is not one of nostalgia or loss, but of cheerful expectation.

The artist’s exhibition of forty paintings at the Dubai Hilton in 1990 attracted considerable interest from the local media. During this period, he also participated in joint exhibitions at the Mitsukoshi and Sogo art galleries in Tokyo. Two of his paintings, both featuring Istanbul, attracted the attention of Prince Tomohito Mikasa. They were presented to the prince as a gift, and took their place in his personal collection.

The fascination of Paris

For a “painter-diplomat” there could hardly have been a more fortunate assignment than Paris, where Darende became Turkey’s permanent representative to UNESCO in 1996: “Paris is a city moulded by art. I enjoyed being there very much. Many Turkish writers and artists of whom we are very proud also live in Paris, and it was a great pleasure to share their experiences and become friends with them.”

Apart from his primary tasks, Darende opines, one of the most important duties of a diplomat is to support those people who are the natural culture and art envoys of their country. In his work with brush and pen, he too placed great importance on the promotion of his country. His Paris exhibition “Istanbul on the Seine” and his book “From Maiden’s Tower to the Eiffel Tower” are monuments to this approach. Besides his sweeping Bosphorus landscapes, the canvases exhibited show red trams carrying passengers in bunches from Tünel to Beyoğlu – a theme which he had started to work on in the 1990s.

But look again closely. The two cities are literally intermingled with one another. Istanbul and the Bosphorus have become united with Paris. Is it Beyoğlu? Or is it the Champs-Elysees? The Eiffel Tower and minarets are inseparable, and takas are flowing down the Seine. Viewers are enthralled by the vividness of its all.

Painting to music

An impressionist? “I am an autodidactic painter. Although I sometimes work in an abstract way, I prefer the impressionist style, I express myself better thought this technique,” he says. He depicts objects the way he wants to see them, paying great attention to colour and light. When he first started painting he used gouache and watercolour, and warm earth colours like orange and yellow dominated. But later he took to oil paint and acrylic and the supremacy of blue became unquestionable. He likes working with acrylic very much: “It dries rapidly and it helps me to put across what I want to say”. The resemblance of his paintings to miniature art does not appear to be deliberate: “Everybody develops a style in time, this is mine.”

The Istanbul gentleman has held 22 personal exhibitions and taken part in 16 joint exhibitions. Many of his paintings are to be found in famous local and foreign collections. While working, he listens to classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. “If I were asked what I would want to become today, I would answer an opera singer or conductor without hesitation,” he says. Meanwhile, his fourth book is on the way. It is inspired by the passion for Istanbul shared by such geniuses as Loti, Flaubert, Gide, Cocteau, Duhamel. “Using old postcards as a starting point, he explains, with a twinkle in his eye, “I decided to bring together the opinions of foreigners about Istanbul and my ideas about its historical architecture. There are some really nice things. For example, in 1917, someone wrote in a postcard sent to a relative how much he missed Hacı Bekir’s lokum.”

(DIPLOMAT  -  July 2005  -  Ankara)