Aliye Berger (24 December 1903 – 9 August 1974) was a
Turkish artist, engraver, and painter.
Berger is one of the first
engravers
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
of
Turkish Republic
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. She is known for her expressionist engravings and winning the painting competition of Yapı Kredi Bank in 1954.
Biography
Berger was born on 24 December 1903 in
Büyükada
Büyükada ( el, Πρίγκηπος or Πρίγκιπος, rendered ''Prinkipos'' or ''Prinkipo''), meaning "Big Island" in Turkish, is the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about . It is offic ...
,
İstanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_in ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. Her father was Kabaağaçlı Şakir Paşa and mother Giritli Sare İsmail Hanım. Her sister was the artist
Fehrelnissa Zeid and her brother was the author
Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı.
Berger originally studied painting and piano lessons while attending the
Lycée Notre Dame de Sion. In 1947 she married Carl Berger, her music teacher, but he died less than six months later.
Berger then followed her sister to London, where she began to study engraving and sculpture, mentored by the artist
John Buckland-Wright. On her return to Turkey in 1951 Berger held her first exhibition in Istanbul, showcasing over 100 works. Her oil painting “''Güneşin Doğuşu''” (“Sun Rising”) won an international competition in 1954, and she took second prize at the 2nd Tehran Biennial the following year.
Berger worked prolifically in the following decades.
Aliye Berger died on 9 August 1974 in
Büyükada
Büyükada ( el, Πρίγκηπος or Πρίγκιπος, rendered ''Prinkipos'' or ''Prinkipo''), meaning "Big Island" in Turkish, is the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about . It is offic ...
, İstanbul, Turkey. She was buried in
Büyükada
Büyükada ( el, Πρίγκηπος or Πρίγκιπος, rendered ''Prinkipos'' or ''Prinkipo''), meaning "Big Island" in Turkish, is the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about . It is offic ...
Cemetery, on
Princes Islands
The Princes' Islands ( tr, Prens Adaları; the word "princes" is plural, because the name means "Islands of the Princes", el, Πριγκηπονήσια, ''Pringiponisia''), officially just Adalar ( en, Islands); alternatively the Princes' Arch ...
, Istanbul, Turkey.
Commemoration
A posthumous retrospective of Berger’s work was held at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts in 1975.
Another exhibition was organised by Yapı Kredi Bank in 1988. Four of Berger's works are exhibited in the
Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
, and three in the
Albertina Museum
The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...
.
Her c. 1960 work, Untitled Dervishes, is held by the
Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in New York.
Aliye Berger was the subject of a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
on 24 December 2020, on what would have been her 117th birthday.
References
1903 births
1974 deaths
Artists from Istanbul
Turkish women painters
20th-century Turkish painters
20th-century Turkish women artists
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