THE CENTENARY OF NEJAD DEVRİM
10.02 – 04.03.2023
Galeri Nev İstanbul commemorates Nejad Devrim, one of the most prominent
artists of modern Turkish painting, on the centennial year of his birth with a selection of his works from various years. The exhibition which presents a number of paper and canvas works of the artist with a new display, can be visited between
February 10 and March 4, 2023.
Nejad Devrim, born in the same year with the Republic of Turkey, is among the artists who built modern Turkish painting parallel to the construction of the modern Turkish Republic. The artist succeeded in transforming and universalizing his painting especially with the lessons he took from Léopold Lévy during his education at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts and quickly entered the post-war artistic scene in Paris, leaving his family and homeland behind only at the age of 23. Thus, he found the place he deserved in the intellectual environment of the city. In 1947, only six months after he set foot in Paris, Nejad opened his solo exhibition at Gallery Allard. While he became the first artist to open a solo show in Paris, he simultaneously created the first abstract compositions of Turkish painting. It is possible to state that paintings he made around 1950s are his most impressive works that mark the mature period of Nejad Devrim who was one of the most prominent artists of the Paris art scene from 1946 to 1968 and his works were also acquired by museums. In this period, different techniques of abstraction and inspirations from the East outshined in his compositions.
With his many travels to various European countries, North America, China, the Soviet Union and Central Asia, Nejad Devrim succeeded in adding new forms, contents and light to his painting and enriching his visual language. In 1968, he left Paris and moved to Poland, where he lived until his death in 1995. Although his move from Paris’s impressive, competitive and challenging art scene is considered as a controversial point in his career, during these years he continued to present quality works with the exhibitions he held in Copenhagen.
Over the years, Galeri Nev İstanbul has organized various exhibitions of Nejad Devrim within the gallery space and also in different venues. In 2001, a retrospective of Nejad Devrim took place at the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) and in 2006, the works of Fahrelnissa Zeid and Nejad Devrim were exhibited together for the first time, under the title of Two Generations on the Rainbow curated by Haldun Dostoğlu at Istanbul Modern. Recently in 2018, the works produced by the artist in Paris between 1947-1968 were exhibited in the show titled Constructing the Abstract at Galeri Nev İstanbul. Playing a major role in the development of contemporary Turkish painting, Nejad Devrim’s rich sense of colour, staining based approach and lyrical abstract expressions are waiting their viewers for new interpretations in a period that coincides his 100th birthday.
*Galeri Nev İstanbul can be visited from Tuesday to Saturday, between 11 am-6.30 pm.
