Elif Naci Click for Artist Information

Elif Naci

He was born in Gallipoli in 1898. He worked at Sanayi-i Nefise, İbrahim Çallı Workshop. He joined to the army with the outbreak of World War I, and started journalism in 1916. He completed his unfinished Academy education in 1928. He worked as a director at the Turkish-Islamic Arts Museum and as a deputy director at Topkapı Palace. He continued painting and journalism together, and wrote articles and books about art. During his student years at the academy, he made interior paintings based on Impressionism. After joining Group D, he adopted abstract expression. During his years at the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, he was influenced by traditional arts, especially calligraphy and Seljuk carpet patterns. The geometrical structure of carpet patterns lies on the basis of the geometric-abstract expression he reached in the 1960s. In addition to his abstract works, he also painted still natures since the 1980s. Among the painters of the 1930s generation, he is known not only as an innovative painter, but also as an artist/writer who opens up and discusses art problems in Turkey and strives to convey art to large masses. He died in 1987 in Istanbul.