Nuri ?yem turns 100 with an exhibit

The 100th birthday of Nuri ?yem, the great master of Turkish painting, is celebrated at the Evin Art Gallery with a comprehensive exhibition Istanbul?s Evin Art Gallery is celebrating the 100th birthday of the great master of Turkish painting, Nuri ?yem, with an exhibition titled ?Nuri ?yem Turns 100/Portrait.? 

Among other exhibitions of the late artist, this is the most comprehensive one presenting the artist?s iconic portraits that he produced in his 68-year life in the arts, as well as his unseen and unfinished works. 

The exhibition, which also displays the artist?s personal belongings, documents, letters and personal notes, is like an archive. 

Exhibition director Feyyaz Yaman said the exhibition provided an opportunity to have a look at ?yem through a perspective of 100 years. He said they had examined the ateliers of the artist for the exhibition, adding, ?Nuri ?yem?s studentship years, the 1930s, the effect and sanctions of the [Turksih] republic ideologies on the era and the artist?s reflex can be seen in the exhibition.?

Yaman said ?yem had maintained his opposing views in the system, and continued: ?He included headscarved women profiles in the painting of that era, especially after the 1960s. He used peasantry-originated things in the Turkish bourgeois environment for the first time. It is very hard to establish an atelier, to survive it and make an independent economy. He is one of the first artists who had succeeded in this.?   

The exhibition also offers a book written by Yaman, Prof. Erhan Karaesmen, Selçuk Altun, Ali ?im?ek and Özcan Türkmen. The writers interpret ?yem?s portraits and artistic personality within the scope of the history of Turkish painting. There will also be a symposium...