20 years after his first show in 1993 at Galeri Nev, never shown gouache works of Nejad Devrim will be presented to the Istanbul audience. Nejad Devrim, who lived on the Istanbul-Paris-Poland axis, has had plenty of journeys and opened exhibitions in many different cities. Devrim is perhaps among the most significant artists of Modern Turkish painting and occupies a particular status in terms of understanding and discussing our own modernism.
Coming from family that took part in the modernization process of the Turkish Republic, combining his dreams of reinventing the world and visions of creating a universal artistic language it was almost impossible for Nejad not to be affected from what he had witnessed in Paris where he visited as a young man of 23 through the means of what he had learned from Léopold Lévy in Istanbul.
We notice that he swiftly formulates his own language, owing to the affluent discussion circles in the post-war Paris. His desire to transform the tradition of painting, which we perceive in his works prior to his relocation dates to fall 1946, finds its bearings at its fullest in Paris and his mastery reaches its peak short after.
We may determine that he had reached a mature stage in the abstract painting that is well ahead of his generation, even perhaps advancing the lineage before him, which included his mother. As the grandchild of a grand vizier, his decision to move to a provincial town in Poland to spend his last quarter of his life after having lived 23 years in Istanbul and 22 more in Paris, namely two major metropolises is not the enforcement of his artistic production but rather the consequence of his personality’s hardly comprehendible twists and turns.
About 20 works the artist that were painted during his Paris years will be presented to the audience at Galeri Nev.
