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Cihat Burak

CİHAT BURAK (1915 - 1994)

After completing his secondary education at Galatasaray High School in 1937, he graduated in 1943 as the students of Sedat Hakkı Eldem, Bonatz and Emin Onat from the architecture department of the Istanbul Fine Arts Academy, which is now Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. He was sent to France with a United Nations scholarship. He studied architecture and painting in Paris for three years. When he returned home in 1955, he resumed his job at the Ministry of Public Works. It was sent to Afghanistan in 1957 for the Kabul Embassy Building projects.

The artist, who opened his first solo exhibition in 1957 at Istanbul Beyoğlu City Gallery with his works in France, in addition to his works based on the understanding of "social realism", there is a fantastic fiction in his works such as Dolmabahçe Palace Gate, Tombstones and Girl with Pearls. Among the works of the artist, who uses the theme of death in his work titled “My Canary, My Beautiful Bird, I Am Shot On You”, there are also paintings by celebrities such as Nazım Hikmet, Eren Eyüboğlu and Aliye Berger as well as the recent “Cat” paintings.

The artist stated that he made architecture to make a living and painting because he loves; Expressionism is observed in metal printing works, porcelain and glass works, and terracotta sculptures and busts, as in their paintings.

Bronze Medal with 1964 Naval Battle in Paris Imagination Navy

Silver Medal at the Utrillo Gift Exhibition in Paris, 1964

1982 Sedat Simavi Foundation Visual Arts Award, Istanbul

1991 Plastic Arts Association Honor Award