Füreya Koral

Füreya Koral (born June 12, 1910 in Istanbul ; † August 26, 1997 there ) was a Turkish artist. She is considered to be the first female ceramic artist in Turkey.

Life

Füreya Koral was born in 1910 as the daughter of the officer and politician Mehmet Emin Koral and the Hakkiye Hanım . Both parents came from respected Ottoman families. Koral grew up in an educated middle class house and occupied himself with music, painting and literature from an early age. Many members of the family were artists or writers. Her maternal grandfather, General Mehmet Şakir Paşa , was an avid photographer and interested in faience art. Her nephew Cevat Şakir was a writer, her aunt Aliye Berger was an engraving artist, and Aunt Fahrelnisa ​​Zeyd was a painter. She learned the piano and violin at an early age. Her first violin teacher was the Hungarian violin virtuoso Charles Berger , who later became the husband of her aunt Aliye. Koral's artistic work is strongly influenced by him. At the age of nine, like many family members, she was able to speak French fluently.

In 1927 Koral graduated from the French-language Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul and then studied philosophy at the University of Istanbul . At the age of 20 she married the large landowner Sabahattin. But the marriage was not a lucky star. Koral lost a child, eventually divorced after two years and returned to his parents' house in Istanbul. In 1935 she married Ali Kılıç , a close confidante of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , whom she had known since childhood. She moved from Istanbul to live with her husband in Ankara . There she was primarily the wife of a respected representative of the young Republic of Turkey. She frequented "better company" and arranged receptions for Ataturk's guests. With the death of the Turkish president in 1938, the couple returned to Istanbul.

In the mid-1940s, Koral contracted serious tuberculosis . To get well, she traveled to a specialist clinic in Leysen, Switzerland. Out of the desire for employment, she dealt intensively with the fine arts during this time. Her aunt Fahrelnisa ​​sent her art materials, including clay, to pass the time. The preoccupation with it was the first engagement with ceramic art. Soon she was taking private lessons. In 1947 Koral rented a studio in Lausanne and worked intensively with ceramics. In 1950 she went to Paris and was able to work in a private studio. The first ceramics and lithographs were exhibited in Paris in 1951. The early works are inspired by the classic crochet motifs of Anatolia (Yazma and Anteb motifs). Hittite paintings and the floral motifs from Iznik also served as inspiration. The critics praised Koral's “synthesis of Eastern and Western art”. Spurred on by the reviews, the young Turkish woman decided to work as an artist.

In the same year she returned to Turkey and exhibited there in the first Turkish gallery. At the beginning of the 1950s she was so intensely involved with her art that in 1954 her second marriage also broke up. She took her own apartment and set up a studio there. The new premises were not only one of the first ceramic art studios in Turkey, but also became a meeting place for the city's artists and intellectuals. Koral also trained art students here again and again.

In 1957, the artist was able to travel to South America on a Rockefeller grant, where she studied the art of the Maya and the Aztecs intensively and incorporated elements of them into her art. Inspired by pre-Columbian art, she also looked to the ancient art of her country and found further inspiration in the art of the Hittites. Birds and fish in particular became a frequent motif. She uses abstract patterns in subdued colors for the tiles. In the 1960s, Koral then turned to more abstract motifs. In the early 1970s she worked on sculptures together with the Turkish sculptor Gürdal Duyar . In the 1980s, Koral devoted himself to the subject of "dreams".

Koral died in her hometown in 1997 and was buried in the Büyükada Island cemetery.

Work and meaning

Koral was one of the first Turkish ceramic artists. She is considered a pioneer of modern ceramic art in Turkey and mixed elements of Islamic with Western art and, in addition to classic faience art, also works with vases, plates and statues. She also made utility ceramics.

Awards

• 1955: Silver medal at the International Ceramics Exhibition in Cannes
• 1962: Gold medal at the International Exhibition in Prague
• 1967: Silver medal at the International Ceramic Exhibition in Istanbul
• 1981: Medal from the Ministry of Culture of the Turkish Republic
• 1986: Award from the Sedat Simavi Foundation for Fine Arts (together with Neşe Erdok )

Exhibitions

Koral has had more than 32 exhibitions in many countries, including the Salon d'Octobre in Paris, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City , the Náprstek Museum in Prague , the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, and galleries in Turkey. She also took part in the international ceramic exhibitions in Cannes (1955), Prague (1962) and Istanbul (1967). In 2009/10, for her 100th birthday, an exhibition was organized in the Rezan Has Müzesi .

reception

The author Ayşe Kulin wrote the biographical novel Füreya about the life of the artist in 2000 .

Working in public space

• 1960: Wall paneling in the entrance hall of the Marmara Hotel, Istanbul
• 1962: Wall paneling in the Ulus shopping center, Ankara
• 1963: Wall paneling in the Manifaturacılar Çarşısı shopping center, Istanbul
• 1965: Wall paneling in the Faculty of Dentistry at Hacettepe University , Ankara
• 1966: Wall paneling for the headquarters of the Ziraat Bank , Istanbul
• 1969: Wall paneling in the Divan Hotel, Taksim, Istanbul
• 1969: Wall paneling for the headquarters of the insurance company Tam Sigorta, Ankara
• 1969: Wall paneling in the Divan Hotel Confectionery, Taksim, Istanbul
• 1969: Wall paneling in the Sheraton Hotel Istanbul

literature

• Fatma door: Bir Usta, Bir Dünya: Füreya Koral . Istanbul 1997.
• Füreya Koral . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 81, de Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-023186-1 , p. 307.
• Emel Mülayim Oral: Bir Seramik Duayeninin Ardından: Füreya Koral. In: Sanat. No. 22, September / October 2007, pp. 100–111.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Koral in the Istanbul Women's Museum
2. ↑ Oral (2007), p. 111.
3. ^ Ayşe Kulin: Füreya . Remzi Kitabevi, Istanbul 2000, ISBN 975-14-0727-3 .