Osman Zeki Oral - Turkish Painting Association

Who is Osman Zeki Oral? (1925-2012)

Born in 1925 in Karadeniz Ereğlisi as the child of an artist family, Osman Zeki Oral’s passion for painting began at a very young age. His father is Calligrapher Kazım Efendi. Growing up in a house where the walls were full of paintings, the artist made copies of famous painters on large canvases and walls at a young age.

He received his primary and secondary education in the city where he was born. During his primary school years, he went to community centers with his older brother and did research from books. Examines the pictures of the cultural magazines published by the Germans in those years. After finishing secondary school, he went to Istanbul in 1943 to study fine arts.

He was accepted to the academy together with Bartınlı Kemal Özenci and Şeref Bigalı. In his early years, Prof. Levi takes pattern lessons from Şefik Bursalı and Seyfi Toray.

In 1944, he chooses his branch and becomes a student of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. With the leadership and encouragement of his teacher Bedri Rahmi, the first exhibition of the Group of Ten was opened. Oral participates in this exhibition with a human figure with black and white rug motifs. Another exhibition of the group opened at the French Consulate in Beyoğlu in 1951. The exhibition includes paintings by a total of 21 artists, including Oral, Turan Erol, Orhan Peker and Fikret Otyam. This time, Oral exhibits his paintings called “Mevleviler”, “Mehter Band” and “Dibek Beaters”.

He worked as the personal painter of Iffet Hassan Hanım, the aunt of the Egyptian King Faruk, the owner of the Atlı Köşk at the time, whom he met during his academy years. During his long years as an art teacher in Bolu and his years as the director of the State Fine Arts Gallery in Bolu and Ankara, he was always intertwined with painting and art. He is not interested in abstract painting, which he interprets as “accidental painting”. Oral, who founded the Bolu Fine Arts Gallery, is also among the founding members of the United Painters and Sculptors Association. He also managed the Ankara Fine Arts Gallery, located in the Zafer Bazaar in Ankara, for many years (1967-1990). The artist's works are exhibited in many galleries and museums and receive awards: Tehran Biennial (Honor Award - 1965), State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition Achievement Award (1974 and 1985), 50th Anniversary Painting and Sculpture Exhibition (Achievement Award - 1973). The portraits, still lifes and other subjects of Osman Zeki Oral, one of the strong names of Turkish painting, are reflected on the artist's canvases with a clean palette, based on solid patterns, free of details, without straying from the essence.