Yahşi Baraz (born April 19, 1944) is a Turkish

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...

. 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 Zeki Pasha İzzettin Çalışlar, ''On yıllık savaşın günlüğü: Balkan, Birinci Dünya ve İstiklal Savaşları'', Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1997, (; 1862–1943), known as Mehmet Zeki Baraz Kolaç Kılıçoğlu after the 1934 Surname La ...

, a

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

of the

Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

during the Turkish

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

and

World War A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

I. He studied ceramics at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, currently known as

Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (, or MSGSÜ) is a public art university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university's campus is located in the Fındıklı, Beyoğlu. The university was established in 1882 under the leadership of Osman Hamdi Bey. Hi ...

, and graduated with a B.A. in 1969. His teachers included prominent Turkish artists and historians such as Sabri Berkel, Edip Hakkı Köseoğlu, 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 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 (). The modern Turkish name means "liberation", "salvation", "independence" or "deliverance". On 13 April 1929, si ...

, 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. Biograph ...

, Mehmet Güleryüz, Nuri İyem, Edip Hakkı Köseoğlu, Fikret Mualla,

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

Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid (, ''Fakhr un-nisa'' or ''Fahr-El-Nissa'', born Fahrünissa Şakir (Kabaağaçlı); 6 December 1901 – 5 September 1991) was a Turkish artist best known for her large-scale abstract paintings with kaleidoscopic patterns ...

, Nejad Melih Devrim, Güngör Taner and Ömer Uluç. He also introduced

Peter Halley Peter Halley (born 1953) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s. Known for his Day-Glo geometric paintings, Halley is also a writer, the former publisher of ''index Magazine'', and a teacher; he ...

Hunt Slonem Hunt Slonem (born Hunt Slonim; July 18, 1951) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He is best known for his Neo-Expressionist paintings of butterflies, bunnies, and his tropical birds, often based on a personal aviary in which he has ...

, John F. Simon JR. and

Mark Kostabi Kalev Mark Kostabi (born November 27, 1960) is an American painter, sculptor 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 ...

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, Feyyaz was the son of Muht ...

, Erol Aksoy,

Ali Koçman Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib an ...

, Aykut Hamzagil, Mustafa Taviloğlu, Halil Bezmen,

Şakir Eczacıbaşı Şakir Eczacıbaşı (3 December 1929 – 24 January 2010), a second generation member of the notable Turkish Eczacıbaşı family, was a pharmacist, photographer and businessman. He was awarded with the Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des ...

, Bülent Eczacıbaşı, 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 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 or commonly abbreviated as BAU is a private university located around the Bosporus, Bosphorus in Çırağan Caddesi, Beşiktaş, Istanbul. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey authorized the establishment of Bahçeşehir ...

, World Art Day Awards * 2018 - International Association of Art, World Art Day "2018 Art Person of the Year Honor Award" * 2006 - Sanat

Akmerkez Akmerkez is a shopping mall located in the Etiler quarter of Beşiktaş district in Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical ...

'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