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Jak İhmalyan
Van Pelt - Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Özmen, Levent, author.
- Language:
- Turkish
- Physical Description:
- 532 pages
- Language Note:
- English
- Notes:
- This monograph is published on the occasion of the exhibition Jak İhmalyan, held at Dirimart Pera from 19 April to 18 May 2025. It offers a comprehensive examination of the life and work of Jak İhmalyan (1922–1978), who left Istanbul at a young age and spent most of his life in various cities across the Eastern Bloc. Despite his significant contribution to modern art, İhmalyan has yet to receive the recognition he deserves within the art historical literature in Turkey. The publication includes an extensive catalogue featuring works from the family collection, as well as from private and institutional collections. It also brings together texts by Cem Altınel, M. Şehmus Güzel, Vaçe İhmalyan, Arda Can Özsu, Ahmet Soysal, and Ömer Faruk Şerifoğlu, offering a rich context for renewed engagement with İhmalyan’s artistic legacy. With the intention to open up new questions and avenues of curiosity, the monograph aims to reconsider the artist’s work through fresh critical perspectives. Edited by Levent Özmen and published as a bilingual edition in Turkish and English, the book is presented with a dynamic and distinctive design by Dilara Sezgin. Jak İhmalyan began his art education during Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’s early teaching years at the Academy of Fine Arts. At a young age, he participated in the landmark 1941 Liman [Harbour] Exhibition, recognised as the first show in Turkey’s modern art history to focus on street life and the people’s daily lives from an insider’s perspective. However, in 1949, due to his engagements with the Communist Party, İhmalyan was forced to flee to Beirut without a passport. During this time, he built lasting friendships with figures such as Abidin Dino, Aziz Nesin, Ara Güler, Nâzım Hikmet, and Türkkaya Ataöv, who, through their writings, memories, photographs, and testimonies, documented both İhmalyan and his art. These connections kept his ties with Turkey intact despite the long distances. After Beirut, İhmalyan lived in the capitals of Eastern Bloc countries, including Warsaw, Beijing, and Moscow, where he sought to shape his life according to his ideology. He passed away at an early age in Moscow in 1978.
- ISBN:
- 9786055815721
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