Eşref Üren - Turkish Painting Association - UK- Headquartered in London

Who is Eşref Üren?

Eşref Üren was born in 1897 in Nişantaşı, Istanbul. He completed his primary and secondary education in Istanbul and Bursa. He attended Galatasaray High School for a while. When his family moved to Bursa, he left Galatasaray High School and enrolled in Bursa Agricultural School. With the start of World War I, he was drafted into the military as a Reserve Lieutenant. He was discharged a year later. He returned to Bursa.

He decided to become a painter when he was doing the landscaping of İbrahim Çallı’s Green Tomb in Bursa. He describes this moment as follows: I was discharged from the “First General War” as a Second Lieutenant (Reserve Lieutenant). I came to Bursa to my mother. In those days, I was enthusiastic about literature. I wasn’t writing anything, but I was reading three or four literary magazines.

In the evening, when I was bored, there was a promenade in Bursa and I would go there and get fresh air. One day I went again and saw that there was a crowd. A man is sitting and painting. His torn socks are coming off his shoes. I got pretty close. He was sitting towards the Green Tomb and working on landscaping. I looked at the picture and it was more beautiful than the Green Tomb.

There I decided to become a painter. I kept turning from right to left until the morning. I woke up in the morning and said to my mother:
-I'm going to Istanbul. I said.
-What will you do? Said.
-I will go to Sanayi-i Nefise. I said.
Eşref Üren, who was not accepted to Sanayi-i Nefise because he was "older", continued as a "Guest Student" from 1919 to 1922. Although he was a student of Hikmet Onat and İbrahim Çallı at the school, he found the education at the school "monotonous". , Left.
He took private painting lessons from Feyhaman Duran, İbrahim Çallı and Muazzez Bey. In 1925, he returned to Sanayi-i Nefise and enrolled as a full student. Although the words of workshop teacher İbrahim Çallı, "It doesn't work, Eşref, it doesn't work" made him sad, it also made him ambitious that he had to work harder. Later, there were moments when he "honored" the same teacher with the words "This landscape of Eşref is as emotional as Mozart".

He went to Paris in 1928 to improve himself. He worked in the André Lhote Workshop. He had the opportunity to examine and observe the works of the Impressionists and Symbolists at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.
He returned home in 1929. He worked as an art teacher at Erzurum and Sivas Teacher Training Schools between 1930 and 1938. On his return from Paris, where he went again with his wife, in 1938, he was appointed to Ankara Atatürk High School.

He attended the exhibition of Group D at the State Academy of Fine Arts, became a member of the group and wrote articles about the group. He participated in the "Homeland Tours" organized by Community Centers. He went to Yozgat in 1940 and to Ağrı in 1943. He participated in exhibitions with his works during his Country Tours.
Although he retired from civil service in 1955, Eşref Üren continued to teach art at TED Ankara College and Ankara Atatürk High School from 1956 to 1968. He also continued his writings, which he started in Milliyet Newspaper in 1932, in various publications of the period until 1984.

Eşref Üren's comments about being an Impressionist; "The connection between me and the Impressionists is only harmony, that is, the acceptance and harmony of colors with each other. In short, closeness is assumed. But this is not enough to make me an "Impressionist". Perspective in the air and the treatment of sun and light puts me in another place and makes me look at me. He clarifies with the words "brings closer".

Eşref Üren passed away in 1984, leaving behind hundreds of works.

Awards
1942 4th State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition Third Prize
1945 7th State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition Second Prize
1964 25th State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition First Prize