Aliye Berger: Google honors Turkish artist on her 117th birthday

Happy Birthday Aliye Berger!!!

Google today celebrates the 117^th birthday of Aliye Berger, who is widely credited as one of the country’s pioneers in the art of engraving. She is known for her expressionist engravings and winning the painting competition of Yapı Kredi Bank in 1954.

Aliye Berger was born on December 24, 1903 in Büyükada, İstanbul, Turkey. Her father was Kabaağaçlı Şakir Paşa and mother Giritli Sare İsmail Hanım. Her sister was artist Fehrelnissa Zeid and her brother was writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı.

Although Aliye Berger was fascinated with painting from a young age, she instead learned to play the violin as a child. It wasn’t until 1947, after she followed her sister to London, that she first began to study engraving under the mentorship of the artist John Buckland-Wright.

Aliye Berger returned to Turkey in 1951 with over a hundred original art pieces and held her first exhibition that year in Istanbul. She soon earned huge critical acclaim when her oil painting “Güneşin Doğuşu” (“Sun Rising”) won a prestigious international competition in 1954. Despite the late start of her artistic career, Aliye Berger produced a prolific body of work over the following decades, and her rare gift has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions around the world.

Aliye Berger won the first prize with his first oil painting work titled ‘Sunrise’ in the Business and Istihsal competition organized by Yapı Kredi Bank for the Congress of the Critics Association held in Istanbul in 1954. The artist won second place in the Second Tehran Biennial the following year.

Aliye Berger mostly produced works in engraving technique in intermediate tones of black and white. Using sandpaper, butcher paper and cheesecloth as materials, the artist reflected realistic and fantastic elements with an original lyricism and expressionism.

Aliye Berger died at the age of 70 on August 9, 1974 in Büyükada, İstanbul, Turkey. Google today honors the Turkish artist, engraver and painter on her 117^th birthday.

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