Turkish painting’s

1920s

 

Turkish painting’s search for a new identity was influenced by the modernization enterprise of the Turkish Republic, which was founded by Ataturk in 1923. From the new capital of Turkey, Ankara, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his kemalist counterparts openly encouraged and supported the arts, painters, poets, archaeologists, writers and musicians in their new form. Many students were sent to Europe to study art.

 

In 1924, Refik Epikman (1902-1974), Muhittin Sebati, Seref Akdik, Cevat Dereli(1900-1989) and Mahmut Cuda were sent to Europe to study art by the Turkish government. All of them graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. When they returned to Turkey in 1928, their presence and art influenced the Turkish art world, especially bringing about new styles of Turkish painting and sculpture. Most of them became teachers at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Gazi Institute of Education. 

 

In 1929, Ali Avni celevi, Hale Asaf, Zeki Kocamemi, Refik Epikman, Muhittin Sebati, Seref Akdik, Cevat Dereli, Nurullah Berk, Mahmut Cuda, and sculptor Ratip Asir Acudoglu united together and created a group called the ‘Union of Independent Painters and Sculptors’. They were influenced by Cubism, Constructivism and Expressionism. The special importance accorded by art critics to Ali Avni celevi and Zeki Kocamemi stems essentially from the assertion that these two artists brought Modernism to painting. Between 1928-1930 the first Constructivist paintings, which were geometrically constructed with angular drawings, appeared.

 

In 1928, the literacy reform drove Arabic script to the Latin alphabet and the culture of the Ottoman Empire to modern culture. Calligraphy of the Koran played a predominant role as did the Western art forms espoused by the Republic's leaders