Tahir Cengiz Yatağan is a painter and sculptor who began making art in 2012. He works in his studio in Beyoğlu, arguably the art centre of Istanbul. Puzzle Parfum is a new door from his practice into the world of scent.
From abstraction to topography
Yatağan’s early works are abstract acrylic paintings on canvas: each part bound to the whole and the whole to its parts, like an organism. He then moved to paintings on metal plates, a period about emptiness and the process of completion. In his recent works he combines different materials and epoxy on canvas with a technique of his own, creating a painted topography of great depth.
Nature repeats itself, yet nothing is the same
The artist’s surfaces recall volcanic landforms. They are compositions that invite touch and seem to have formed by themselves, untouched by a human hand. Moving from fingerprints to tree trunks, from marble veins to the delicacy of a leaf, these textures draw the viewer in the way nature does, repeating itself while nothing is ever alike.
A spiritual path
Yatağan’s paintings sketch a road map towards the stage of spiritual maturity in Rumi’s Sufi philosophy. From the first breath to the cycle of life, they question and leave the viewer alone with themselves. The bond he draws between spiritualism and the plastic arts can be felt in the meanings of the Puzzle fragrances too: Gece is an inner journey, Nagamani an awakening, Purgatory a stop between two worlds.
From studio to bottle
The patterns on Puzzle bottles evolve directly from these paintings. The artist’s works are multiplied through mirror symmetry into a visual identity for each fragrance. Each bottle thus carries a small work that came out of Yatağan’s studio.
The artist · Read next: The story behind Puzzle Parfum
