Aliye Berger - Turkish Painting Association - UK- Headquartered in London

Who is Aliye Berger? (1903-1974)

He is one of the first engraving and engraving artists of Turkey. The artist, who first made his name known to the wide art circles by being selected first in the painting competition organized by Yapı Kredi Bank in 1954, is known for his expressionist engraving prints.

He was born on December 24, 1903 in Büyükada. His father is Kabaağaçlızade Mehmed Şakir Pasha and his mother is Cretan Sare İsmet Hanım. Brother of the writer Fisherman of Halicarnassus and the painter Fahrünnisa Zeyd; Ceramic artist Füreya Koral is the aunt of theater actress Şirin Devrim and painter Nejat Devrim.
She was educated at the French High School Notre Dame de Sion. She took painting and piano lessons. She took lessons from Hungarian violin virtuoso and pedagogue Karl Berger, who was in Turkey in 1924. The couple, whose relationship turned into love, lived together for twenty-three years.

From 1935 to 1939, he stayed with his sister Fahrünnisa Zeyd in Berlin and Paris and followed art movements. Aliye Berger, who married Karl Berger in 1947, lost her husband six months later and went to London to work on sculpture and engraving in John Buckland Wright’s workshop. She returned to Turkey with 150 engravings in 1951 and opened her first personal exhibition.
He won the first prize with his first oil painting titled “Sunrise” in the competition titled “Business and Production” organized by Yapı Kredi Bank for the congress of the International Association of Art Critics held in Istanbul in 1954. The following year, the artist received the second prize at the 2nd Tehran Biennial.

Although Aliye Berger made drawings and oil paintings, she mostly produced works in the intaglio printing technique, in intermediate tones of black and white. Using sandpaper, butcher paper and cheesecloth as materials, the artist reflected the patterns of daily life and various corners of Istanbul, sometimes realistically, sometimes fantastically, with a unique lyricism and expressionism. Throughout his life, he opened twelve special exhibitions in various cities around the world and participated in forty-eight group exhibitions.
The artist died on Büyükada on August 9, 1974.
His works were exhibited several times after his death. The biggest ones are the exhibition held at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts between 16 October and 1 November 1975, and the exhibition organized by Yapı Kredi Bank between 11 February and 6 March 1988. Four of the artist's works are exhibited in the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum and three in the Albertina Museum.