Aliye Berger, 1903-1974

Aliye Berger was the sister of author Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı and painter Fahrelnissa Zeid, and the aunt of ceramic artist Füreya and painter Nejad Melih Devrim. Born in Istanbul, she took painting and piano lessons while attending high school at Notre Dame de Sion. In 1947 she married her music teacher, Carl Berger, but when he died just six months later she went to London, where her older sister Fahrelnissa was living, to escape her grief and studied sculpture and engraving in the studio of John Buckland Wright.

After returning to Turkey in 1951, Berger held her first exhibition the following year at the French Consulate. She became known to the art world when her painting Sun Rising won first prize in the thematic competition Work and Production held by Yapı Kredi Bank for its tenth anniversary in 1954.

Although she also produced major drawings, Berger primarily worked in engraving, a technique seldom practiced in Turkey at that time. Most of her engravings depict interiors, people, or landscapes. The expressionistic compositions manifest her inner world while sometimes combining real and fantastical elements. This exhibition gathers a wide range of her works, from her early years in London to her final productions.