Nuri İyem

Between 1933 and 1937; Working in the ateliers of Nazmi Ziya, Hikmet Onat, İbrahim Çallı and Leopold Levy, she graduated from the Painting Department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts with the first place. He completed his military service in 1938. He returned to the Academy in 1940 to continue with the Department of High Painting. Together with Kemal Sönmezler, Selim Turan and Avni Arbaş, he decided to open an exhibition with the paintings depicting fishermen and port workers. Turgut Atalay Güneri, Haşmet Akal, Agop Arad, Fethi Karakaş, Ferruh Başağa and Mümtaz Yener joined this team. These young students of Leopold Levy, who opened the exhibition titled “Port City Istanbul” with the paintings they worked together from the ports in the Beyoğlu Press Office Hall in 1941, were named “News”. The group's second exhibition with the theme "Woman" was opened in the same venue in 1942, and the third exhibition was opened in 1943 at Eminönü Community Center. For the first time in the history of Turkish painting, the “Yeniler Group” constituted an important turning point with its views advocating social realist painting. He graduated from the Department of High Painting in 1944, winning the first prize with his painting "Farrier". He opened his first personal exhibition on the third floor of a store in Beyoğlu in 1946 and participated in the fourth exhibition of the “Yeniler Group”. In the same year, he sent his work “Farrier” to the Unesco exhibition. He participated in all the exhibitions of the Yeniler Group held at the French Cultural Center every two years from 1947 to 1951. He turned to abstract painting in 1948. He did landscape and object abstractions. Upon the dissolution of the "Yeniler Group" in 1951, he became a member of the Turkish Painters Association and participated in the exhibitions of the association. In 1952, he opened his second solo exhibition of nudes and portraits at Maya Art Gallery. Since then, he has continued to hold personal exhibitions regularly every year. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1956 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1957. He continued his abstract and nonfigurative works until 1965. Although he made various wall painting works between 1959 and 1970, none of them survived. In the same period, he wrote art articles for Yeditepe and Dost magazines. In 1986, a retrospective exhibition was opened at Tüyap Trade Center in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Art and the book about the exhibition was published. He received the 50th Anniversary of the Republic Painting Award in 1973, the Sedat Simavi Visual Arts Award in 1989, and the Tüyap Istanbul Art Fair Honor Award in 1997. In 2001, Evin Art Gallery identified the collections containing his paintings and archived the images. As a continuation of the project, the retrospective exhibition "Nuri İyem from Past to Tomorrow", consisting of 1504 paintings, was opened and a two-volume book containing all the works that came to the exhibition and a CD was published. The works of the great master Nuri İyem, who passed away on June 18, 2005, are exhibited at the Evin Art Gallery and certificates continue to be given to his works.