Mikail Akar did not flinch as the cameras clicked around him. Born in 2012, the German artistic prodigy has spent half his life in the limelight.
With his striped jumper, goofy grin and dreams of becoming a professional soccer player, Akar seems just like any other seven-year-old boy.
Yet, the Cologne-born youngster is actually an expressionist whiz kid who has taken the international art scene by storm.
Photo: AFP
Dubbed the “preschool Picasso” by German media, Akar’s paintings now sell for thousands of euros to buyers from around the world.
“At just seven years old, he is established in the art world. There is interest from Germany, France and the USA,” his father and manager, Kerem Akar, told reporters.
Kerem Akar discovered Mikail Akar’s precocious talent by chance several years ago, when he gifted his son a canvas and some handprint paints for his fourth birthday.
“We had already bought him enough cars and action figures, so we had the idea of getting him a canvas,” Kerem Akar said.
“The first picture looked fantastic and I thought at first that my wife had painted it,” he said. “I thought maybe it was just coincidence, but by the second and third pictures it was clear he had talent.”
Mikail Akar’s talent is visible in his latest collection, a collaboration with Bayern Munich soccer star Manuel Neuer.
One work in the collection was sold for 11,000 euros (US$12,223), with proceeds going to Neuer’s children’s charity.
An explosion of color reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, the piece is typical of Mikail Akar’s abstract expressionist style.
The seven-year-old told reporters that his idols include Pollock, Michael Jackson and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
He has also developed his own techniques, which include applying paint by punching the canvas with his father’s boxing gloves.
At a presentation of Mikail Akar’s new work at a private gallery in Berlin last month, one visitor said that she was “speechless” upon discovering that the artist was a child who was just starting elementary school.
“The balance and harmony of the composition — I wouldn’t expect that from a child,” Berlin-based photographer Arina Daehnick told reporters.
Diana Achtzig, director of the Achtzig Gallery for Contemporary Art in Berlin, said that she was impressed by Mikail Akar’s “imagination and variation.”
“As long as he has someone supporting him and not exploiting him, then he has a great future ahead of him,” she said.
Mikail Akar has said that his dreams for when he has grown up lie elsewhere.
“When I’m older I want to be a football player,” he said, launching into an excited account of an 8-0 victory with his school team.
“Painting is quite tiring for me. Sometimes it can take a long time ... especially with boxing gloves,” he added.
His father has insisted that he and his wife are careful not to push their son too hard and to protect him from the trappings of fame.
“If it gets too much for him, we will intervene. We turn down a lot of requests,” Kerem Akar said. “He only paints when he wants to. Sometimes that is once a week, sometimes once a month.”
Yet, Kerem Akar also admitted that his life has changed dramatically since discovering his son’s talent, and that he and his wife now “live for art”
A former salesman and recruitment agent, the 38-year-old has since switched to managing his son’s career full-time.
He has founded his own agency and helped to establish his son as a successful brand.
At the event in Berlin, Mikail Akar rummaged through a box of freshly ordered baseball caps adorned with his official logo.
He now has more than 40,000 followers on Instagram and is to exhibit his work abroad for the first time in the spring.
“Our next exhibition is in Cologne,” Kerem Akar said. “After that, we are going to Paris.”
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