Adnan Varınca Click for Artist Information

Adnan Varınca

Adnan Varınca (1918-27 May 2014)

Painter Adnan Varınca was born in Istanbul in 1918. After studying at Saint Joseph French High School, he continued his education at Galatasaray High School and graduated from here in 1938. After his high school education, he continued his education at the Painting Department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked in the ateliers of artists such as Leopold Lèvy and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. He graduated from Fine Arts in 1948. Varinca opened his first solo exhibition at the French Cultural Center in Istanbul. Afterwards, he worked as an art teacher in secondary education institutions.

The artist, who went to Paris in 1956 with his own means to continue his work abroad, attended the exhibitions of Turkish painters at the Academy of Fine Arts. Varınca, who worked in different jobs during his stay in France, did not open his personal exhibition here. He became one of the participants in the exhibition "Six Turkish Painters" in Besançon. During this period, he continued his studies and created a unique style. In the 1950s, he used Istanbul landscapes as the subject of his works. After 1960, he mostly dealt with interiors and the objects in his environment. He used matchbox, tables, armchairs and bottles as themes in his works. When he returned to Turkey in 1973, he continued his studies in his private workshop. In 1975, he exhibited his works collectively at the Istanbul Municipality City Gallery. In 1977, he opened an exhibition at Maçka Art Gallery. In the next period, he created natürmort works and drew pictures of objects such as apple, lemon, watermelon and eggplant. Varınca, who opened many personal exhibitions, shared the Sedat Simavi Foundation Visual Arts Award with painter Turan Erol in 1980. After 1980, the artist began to produce more colorful works. Between 1980 and 1990, he produced important works in both landscape and portrait genres. In 2006, he was deemed worthy of an award in the painting category at the awards given by the Aydın Doğan Foundation.