İsmail Altınok

Who is İsmail Altınok (1920-2002)

Painter, art worker and teacher İsmail Altınok was born in Burdur in 1920. He was a student of Abidin Elderoğlu at Izmir Teacher Training School, and of Malik Aksel and Refik Epikman at Gazi Education Institute, which he graduated in 1943. He met Cemal Tollu in 1942.
He established friendships with Eşref Üren and Cemal Bingöl in Ankara. He worked as an art teacher at Eskişehir High School, Ankara Atatürk High School, Namık Kemal Secondary School, Ankara Kology and Cyprus Limassol 19 Mayıs High School. In 1955, he went to France for a group exhibition and spent a month in Paris. He joined the Black Kalem Group, which was founded in 1961.

In 1959, he won a scholarship from the Italian government and stayed in Rome for four months. The painter, who participated in State Painting Exhibitions since 1943 and won various awards, retired from teaching in 1973.

İsmail Altınok’s first painting exhibition was at Devrim Primary School in Ankara (1948), and the last one was a retrospective exhibition at Ankara İş Bankası Art Gallery in December 2001. In addition to the books he wrote on painting, he gave various conferences: “Today’s Turkish Painting”, “Problems of Turkish Painting”, “Definition of Art”, “Vasarely”, “Socialist View and the Art of Painting”, “Positive Art, Negative Art”. “Seeking Identity in Painting” are some of the main ones.
He had to quit painting in the last years of his life due to health problems. He passed away on May 7, 2002.