Selim Turan - Turkish Painting Association - UK- Headquartered in London

Who is Selim Turan? (1915 Istanbul – 1994 Paris)

After completing primary school in Istanbul as a student of Ali Avni Çelebi and Malik Aksel, he met Cihat Burak and Avni Arbaş at Galatasaray High School. He became seriously acquainted with painting with the painting lessons he took from Malik Aksel. With his father also being interested in painting, he entered the Istanbul Fine Arts Academy Painting Department, which is now Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, in 1915.

Turan took painting lessons from Nazmi Ziya Güran, Feyhaman Duran, Leopold Levy and Zeki Kocamemi, and took Turkish decorative arts and calligraphy lessons from İsmail Hakkı Altunbezer, Necmettin Okyay and Kamil Akdik. After graduating from the Academy in 1938, she worked as an art teacher in secondary schools and Moda Girls’ Art School in Üsküdar in 1939.

On the other hand, he also worked on Miniature in the workshops at the Academy and Topkapı Palace. He attended the Department of Painting, which was opened in 1940, together with Nuri İyem, Turgut Atalay, Ferruh Başağa, Agop Arad, Avni Arbaş, Mümtaz Yener, Fethi Karakaş and Haşmet Akal. A year later, with the participation of Abidin Dino, he was among the founders of the Yeniler Group, observing the “Social Realist” approach. Participating in country trips organized through Community Centers in 1941; He received the first prize in the 10th anniversary exhibition of these trips.
He went to Paris in 1947 with a scholarship from the French Government.

He continued his painting studies in official and private workshops. The artist, who taught at Ranson and Goetz academies between 1953 and 1983, also produced marble sculptures. He created his first mobile sculptures in 1976. Selim Turan, who made impressionist and cubic landscape works with social content before going to Paris, later turned to Abstract. One of his mobile sculptures, made with mixed techniques, was enlarged and placed in Kurtuluş Park in Ankara in 1993. The artist, who has frescoes, ceramics, mosaics and sculptures in many cities of France, also contributed to the establishment of the private Ethnography Gallery in the Türkmen Tahtakuşlar Village of Edremit.
He is one of the Paris Turkish School painting artists along with Fikret Mualla, Hakkı Anlı, Abidin Dino, Remzi Raşa, Avni Arbaş, Nejat Devrim, Mübin Orhon and Albert Bitran.

The artist, who was a professor at Sorbonne University in 1991 and also took part in the PhD juries, died in Paris on October 13, 1994. His body was brought to the country and he was buried after a ceremony at the Atatürk Cultural Center.

Personal Exhibitions
1950 Gallery Breteau, Paris
1953 Gallery Suzanne Michel, Paris[3]
1954 Gallery Armand Paris
1955 Gallery Obelisk, London
1956 Gallery Europe, Brussels
1958 Gallery Craven, Paris
1958 Gallery Obelisk, London
1958 Gallery Weite, New York
1958 Galeris Iris Clert, Paris
1958 Gallery Antelope
1959 Ruth Wheit Gallery, America
1960 Gallery Lucien Durand, Paris
1961 Gallery L'Ancienne Comedie, France
1961 Gallery Marcelle Dupuis, Paris
1961 Gallery Drian, London, England
1962 Gallery R.Creuze, Paris, France
1963 Gallery Kerehache, France
1964 Gallery Maywald
1966 Gallery Claude Bernard, Paris, France
1969 Turkish-German Cultural Center, Istanbul
1970 Gallery I, Istanbul
1975 Gallery Lagarde, Paris, France
1975 Gallery Cristine Leurent, Lille, France
1975 Retrospective, Vivion Cultural Centre, Vivion, France
1979 Gallery Artisan, Ankara
1982 Transept Tavern, Paris, France
1983 Transept Tavern, Paris / France
1984 Gla Eritsan, Ankara
1984 En Gallery, Istanbul
1985 Gallery Baraz, Istanbul
1985 Galeri Nev, Ankara
1989 Edpa Gallery, Istanbul
1992 Tuğray Art Gallery, Istanbul
1993 Selçuk Yaşar Art Gallery, İzmir
1993 Gallery Selvin, Ankara
Group Exhibitions
1939 "Port Exhibition", Istanbul Yeniler Group
1939 State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Ankara
1946 Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
1948 National Museum of Fine Arts, Paris, France
1948 Gallery Des Deux Iles, Paris, France
1949 Gallery Rosenberg, Paris, France
1953 Gallery Suzanne Michel, Paris, France[4]
1954 Gallery Voyelle, Paris, France
1956 Gallery Arnaud, Paris, France
1956 Gallery Bretean, Paris, France
1956 Gallery Craven, Paris, France
1957 Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, England
1958 New Vision, London, England
1958 International Exhibition, Brussels
1964 Museum of Modern Arts -Turkish Art, Paris, France
1964 Carnegie Institution, America
1968 Galatasaray 100th Anniversary Painting Exhibition, Gallery I
1969 Museum of Modern Arts Contemporary Turkish Painting Exhibition, Paris, France
1986 "Turkish Painting in the Second Half of the Century", Galeri Baraz organization, Yıldız Silahhane, Istanbul
1986 "Contemporary Turkish Art" Exhibition, Ankara
1987 "Group Painting Exhibition", Gallery Baraz, Istanbul
1987 I. Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul
1987 Les Fontaines Cultural Centre, Paris, France
1987 "A Section from the Yahşi Baraz Collection", Galeri Baraz organization, Beymen Art Gallery, Ankara
1987 "Modernization Process in Turkish Painting", Galeri Baraz organization, AKM, Istanbul
1989 "Second International Istanbul Biennial", Istanbul
1989 "Great Exhibition/Contemporary Turkish Painters", Galeri Baraz organization, AKM, Ankara
1990 "Paris Istanbul", International Art Center, Paris, France
1990 "15 Years in the Events Process", Galeri Baraz organization, AKM, Istanbul
1990 A.G.F Turkish Painters of Paris, Paris, France
1992 "II. Istanbul Art Fair", TÜYAP, Istanbul
1992 "New York-Istanbul", Galeri Baraz organization, AKM, Istanbul
1994 "Cihat Burak/ Ergin İnan/ Selim Turan/ Burhan Uygur", Galeri Baraz, Istanbul

Posthumous Organizations
1995 "Painting and Conceptual Trends in Contemporary Turkish Art I", Galeri Baraz organization, Koç University, Istanbul
1998 "Abstract Tendencies in Turkish Painting", Galeri Baraz Organization, AKM, Istanbul