Avni Arbaş - Turkish Painting Association - UK- Headquartered in London

Who is Avni Arbaş? (1919 Istanbul – 2003 Foça)

He started his primary education in Aydın, where his father was on duty. He enrolled in Galatasaray High School in Istanbul, where he came with his mother after the death of his father, who can be considered his first art teacher, in Sivas in 1929. He became a student of Galatasaray High School students of that day and today’s painters Cihat Burak and Selim Turan, as well as Mehmet Ali Bey, one of the military painters. He worked in the workshops of the Academy teachers of the period, İbrahim Safi and Naci Kalmukoğlu.
In 1937, he left Galatasaray High School to enter the middle section of the State Academy of Fine Arts, now known as Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Arbaş, who worked in the workshops of İbrahim Çallı and Leopold Levy, participated in the State Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions in the last periods of his nine years at the Academy. After finishing school in 1946; He went to Siirt by participating in the “Homeland Tours” organized with the efforts of the then Minister of Education (Minister of National Education) Hasan Ali Yücel.

The artist, who went to Paris with a scholarship from the French Government, opened his first exhibitions at the Maya Gallery in Turkey in 1951, and in Paris in 1954, with his works inspired by Mahmut Makal’s book “Our Village”. Following the death of his wife Zerrin, whom he married in 1943, he married Henriette Lapouge for the second time in 1958. In 1966, he illustrated the 3rd volume of Henri Montherlant with fifteen Litho (Stone print) works.

He is one of the Paris Turkish School painting artists along with Fikret Mualla, Hakkı Anlı, Abidin Dino, Selim Turan, Remzi Raşa, Nejad Melih Devrim, Mübin Orhon and Albert Bitran.

He returned to Turkey in 1977, but; He experienced difficulties when he learned that he lost his citizenship because he did not do his military service. At the end of his struggle, he regained his citizenship. During this period, he mainly produced works on the themes of "Istanbul" and "Bosphorus", as well as portraits of Mustafa Kemal. The artist, who also worked on pencil portraits of Nâzım Hikmet, who visited Paris from time to time while he was in Paris, died in 2003 at the age of 84 in the Foça district of Izmir, where he lived due to cancer.

Avni Arbaş through the eyes of Ferit Edgü
Stating that the artist closest to Avni Arbaş among the masters of modern painting is Picasso, Edgü says that, on the contrary to Picasso, who said, "Painting is stronger than me, he makes me do whatever he wants," Arbaş "Tries to dominate painting." Adding that the artist bears traces of a certain mastery in both his drawings and oil paintings, which he painted years after his student period, Edgü evaluates Arbaş's artistic style as follows...". There is something I see in these paintings that is not that ordinary. Avni Throughout his long artistic life, which was spent in Turkey, then in France, then again in Turkey, he did not deviate from the path he followed during his youth at the Academy. Of course, I am not saying that he always painted the same painting over the years. But, every time I say that time produced paintings with the same understanding.

Posthumous online exhibitions
2008 Arda Art Gallery
2008 Artisan Art Gallery
2008 Artisan Art Gallery
2008 Depths Art Center
2008 Olcay Art
2008 Artisan Art Gallery
2008 Pınar Art
2008 Antik Park Fine Art and Antiques
2007 Evin Art Gallery
2007 Artisan Art Gallery
2007 Artisan Art Gallery
2006 Artisan Art Gallery
2006 Artisan Art Gallery
2006 Cumalı Art Gallery
2006 Gallery D
2006 Artisan Art Gallery
2005 Arti Auction
2005 Artisan Art Gallery
2005 Macka Auction
2005 Alif ART
2005 Istanbul Graphic Arts Museum
2004 Krishna Art Center
2004 Artisan Art Gallery
2004 Artisan Art Gallery
2004 Artium Art House
2003 Arti Auction
2003 dem-art Art Gallery
2003 Artisan Art Gallery
2002 Artisan Art Gallery
2002 dem-art Art Gallery
2001 dem-art Art Gallery
Personal Exhibitions
1998 Milli Re Art Gallery/Retrospective, Ist.
1995 Artisan Art Gallery, Istanbul
1992 Garanti Art Gallery/Small Retrospective, Istanbul
1991 Artisan Art Gallery, Istanbul
1987 Artisan Art Gallery, Istanbul
1987 Artisan Art Gallery, Ankara
1983 Artisan Art Gallery, Ankara
1982 Urart Art Gallery, Istanbul
1981 Artisan Art Gallery, Ankara
1979 Artisan Art Gallery, Ankara
1978 Bedri Rahmi Gallery, Istanbul
1977 Vakko Art Gallery, Ankara
1975 Galerie Esteve, Paris
1972 Gallery Herbert Benevy, New York
1970 The Vernon Manor, Ohio
1965 Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris
1962 Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris
1961 Gallery Nicole, New York
1958 Musée Grimaldi, Antibes (with Abidin Dino)
1956 Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris
1954 Galerie Octobon, Paris
1953 Galerie La Roue, Paris
1951 Maya Art Gallery, Istanbul (first exhibition in Turkey)
Selections from group exhibitions
1986 "Spring in Istanbul" Edpa Art gallery Istanbul
1968 Galerie La Muraille, Besançon
1965 "Turkish Painters Living in Paris" German Culture. Istanbul
1956 Ecole de Paris 56 Gallery Carpentier, Paris
1940 Liman Sr., with the Yeniler Group, Press Directorate Hall, Istanbul