Yahşi Baraz (born April 19, 1944) is a Turkish art dealer. He is the founder and the director of one of Turkey's earliest art galleries, Galeri Baraz.

Early life and career

Yahşi Baraz was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He is the son of Ahmet Münir Baraz and Ülker Baraz. His great grandfather is Zeki Pasha, a

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

of the Ottoman Army during the Turkish

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

and World War I. He studied ceramics at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, currently known as Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, and graduated with a B.A. in 1969. His teachers included prominent Turkish artists and historians such as

Sabri Berkel Sabri Fetah Berkel (1907–1993) was a Turkish-Albanian modernist painter; he was one of the most important painters and academic personalities of the last century in Turkey. Berkel was born in Skopje, where, in 1927, he completed high school at a ...

Edip Hakkı Köseoğlu Edip is a Turkish given name. People named Edip include: * Halide Edip Adıvar (1884–1964), Turkish novelist and feminist * Edip Cansever (1928–1986), Turkish poet * Edip Yüksel Edip Yüksel (born December 20, 1957 in Güroymak, Turkey) is ...

, Belkıs Mutlu, Nejat Diyarbekirli, İsmail Hakkı Oygar and Sadi Diren. He traveled in Europe - hitchhiking - during his summer vacations in his Academy years. He did his mandatory military service in

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Turkey, on the Syrian border as a gendarmerie. Upon being discharged from the military he built a ceramics workshop in

Kurtuluş Kurtuluş is a neighbourhood of the Şişli district of Istanbul that was originally called ''Tatavla,'' meaning 'stables' in Greek ( el, Ταταύλα). The modern Turkish name means "liberation", "salvation", "independence" or "deliverance". On ...

, İstanbul, at the current gallery building and used it as his studio between 1971 and 1976. In 1974 he went to New York City where he first worked at "Fire House Ceramics" and later at "Unicorn Gallery" in SoHo as an intern. That was where he realised that he wanted to be an art dealer instead of an artist. After returning to Turkey in 1975, he set out to convert the ceramics workshop into an art gallery. Galeri Baraz opened on November 14, 1975 with a show of Can Göknil's paintings and Yahşi Baraz's ceramic works. Since then the gallery held more than two hundred and fifty exhibitions of important Turkish artists such as

Burhan Doğançay Burhan C. Doğançay (11 September 1929 – 16 January 2013) was a Turkish-American artist. Doğançay is best known for tracking walls in various cities across the world for half a century, integrating them in his artistic work. Biography ...

Mehmet Güleryüz Mehmed (modern Turkish: Mehmet) is the most common Bosnian and Turkish form of the Arabic name Muhammad ( ar, محمد) (''Muhammed'' and ''Muhammet'' are also used, though considerably less) and gains its significance from being the name of Muha ...

, Nuri İyem,

, Fikret Mualla,

Bedri Baykam Bedri Baykam is a Turkish artist. Early life Baykam was born in Ankara, Turkey. Baykam's father, Dr. Suphi Baykam, is a deputy in the Turkish parliament, and his mother, Mutahhar Baykam, is an architectural engineer. Baykam studied at Sorbonne ...

Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid Fahrelnissa Zeid (, ''Fakhr un-nisa'' or ''Fahr-El-Nissa''; 7 January 1901 – 5 September 1991) was a Turkish artist best known for her large-scale abstract paintings with kaleidoscopic patterns as well as her drawings, lithographs, and sculpt ...

, Nejad Melih Devrim, Güngör Taner and Ömer Uluç. He also introduced Peter Halley, Hunt Slonem,

John F. Simon JR. John F. Simon Jr. (1963, Louisiana) is a new media artist who works with LCD screens and computer programming. He currently lives and works in New York City. Simon holds several degrees: a Bachelor of Arts, BA in Art Studio and a Bachelor of Scienc ...

and

Mark Kostabi Kalev Mark Kostabi (born November 27, 1960) is an American artist and composer. Early life Kostabi was born in Los Angeles on November 27, 1960, to Estonian immigrants Kaljo and Rita Kostabi. He was raised in Whittier, California and studied dra ...

to the Turkish art world. Yahşi Baraz has played a significant role in promoting Turkish art and artists and has been very influential in getting people to form art collections since the 70s. His clients included

Feyyaz Berker Feyyaz Berker (October 7, 1925 – August 22, 2017) was a Turkish businessmanTekfen Holding. He was one of the three co-founders and owners of the Tekfen Holding. Biography Born on October 7, 1925, in Mersin, Turkey, Feeyaz was the son of Muht ...

Erol Aksoy Erol is a Turkish given name or surname meaning "brave". This name is shared by the following people: Given name * Erol Alkan (born 1974), Turkish Cypriot DJ, artist and record producer * Erol Erdal Alkan (born 1994), Turkish footballer * Erol Bek ...

, Ali Koçman, Aykut Hamzagil, Mustafa Taviloğlu, Halil Bezmen, Şakir Eczacıbaşı,

Bülent Eczacıbaşı Bülent Eczacıbaşı (, born 1949) is a Turkish businessman. Currently, he serves as chairman of the board at Eczacıbaşı Holding, a prominent Turkish conglomerate. Background Bülent Eczacıbaşı was born in İstanbul in 1949 to Nejat Ec ...

, Cengiz Çetindoğan, Barbaros-Sema Çağa and many others. In 2010, he founded Galeri Baraz Publishing House. The company has published 7 books about arts in

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

with the last one being a biography of Fahrelnissa Zeid.

Personal life

Yahşi Baraz married Hülya Salihoğlu in 1983. He has a daughter named Rüya Baraz from this first marriage. In October 2004 he married Bulgarian sculptor Maria Kılıçlıoğlu.

Awards

* 2022 -

Bahçeşehir University Bahçeşehir University (BAU) is a private educational institution in Turkey, located around the Bosporus in Istanbul. The Turkish National Assembly authorized the establishment of the University of Bahçeşehir by the Bahçeşehir Uğur Educatio ...

World Art Day World Art Day is an international celebration of the fine arts which was declared by the International Association of Art (IAA) in order to promote awareness of creative activity worldwide. Establishment A proposal was put forward at the 17th Gene ...

Awards * 2018 - International Association of Art,

"2018 Art Person of the Year Honor Award" * 2006 - Sanat Akmerkez'de, "Art Contributors" Award * 1998 - TÜYAP, Plaque of Appreciation for 20 Years of Service in the Art World

References

External links

Galeri Baraz
Turkish art curators {{DEFAULTSORT:Baraz, Yahşi Turkish contemporary art Curators from Istanbul 1944 births Living people