Cihat Burak Retrospective Modern seyyah, bıçkın nakkaş, zamansız tarihçi

İstanbul Museum of Modern Art organized an exhibition on the life and art of Cihat Burak, the unconventional master of modern Turkish art who offers an unparalleled insight into Turkey’s social and cultural history. Curated by Levent Çalıkoğlu, "Cihat Burak Retrospective" brings together a number of works that mark 50 years of the versatile artist’s creative production.

Cihat Burak is an architect, painter, and short-story writer who internalizes both the spatial and social features of Ottoman-Turkish society and skillfully reflects all the features of Turkish society during Republican Period in a manner that parallels his own life. The artist thinks in terms of lines and explores and applies the possibilities of the line across different surfaces such as canvas, paper, ceramic, and metal plate. Cihat Burak recreates the flavor of the past and combines folk tradition with the elements of Ottoman art through Western methods. Tradition and universality, imagination and reality are closely interconnected in his art.

Renowned for his unconventional personality, Cihat Burak sees art as a reflection of life. He aims to capture a glimpse of the life he leads. Dreams, poems, and even fantasies blend into his paintings; he creates a unique language by combining surreal elements with a brilliantly dark humor. Through a satirical disposition, his figures convey the artist’s analysis of the period in which they are created, as well as his observations on life. His social criticism is exercised in a grotesque fashion embedded in subdued sarcasm. Burak’s works are a combination of memory, imagination, irony, and fantasy. His vast imagination and perception allow him to create a profoundly personal world, which, through his ironic style, evolves into a fairytale-like and humorous universe.

Comprised of 220 works by Cihat Burak, the exhibition included paintings, ceramics, and print works. Presented in a chronological framework, the artist’s works will be collected under various headings. Furthermore, the exhibition also included 23 photographs of Cihat Burak, taken by renowned Turkish photographer Ara Güler.

CİHAT BURAK
Born in Istanbul in 1915, architect, painter, and writer Cihat Burak completed his middle school education at Galatasaray High School and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Architecture in 1943. After working on several projects as an architect, Burak went to France with a scholarship from the United Nations and the French Government, in 1953 and 1961, respectively. However, he eventually quit his job and dedicated himself entirely to painting. He opened his first individual exhibition at the Beyoğlu City Gallery in 1957. In 1964, he received an honorary mention at the Utrillo Competition. The same year, he was awarded a bronze medal for his painting "Imaginary Fleet / Naval War" at an international competition held by Musée de l'art moderne in Paris. He returned to Turkey in 1965 and continued to work, both as an architect and as a painter. Until his last exhibition at the Garanti Bank Beyoğlu Art Gallery, he participated in 78 art exhibitions, 23 of which were individual. In 1982, he received the Sedat Simavi award in visual arts. "Cardonlar", his first book of short stories was published in 1982. His second book "Yâkûtîler’ won first prize at the 1992 Yunus Nadi Awards. His third and last published book of collective stories was "Zenci Kalınız’. Cihat Burak died on March 3rd, 1994.

Küratör: Levent Çalıkoğlu