He was my 'Design Fundamentals' teacher at the then Findikli Guzel Sanatlar Akademisi (Mimar Sinan University).
Mavi Boncuk |
Coker was born in Süleymaniye in Istanbul on 20 October 1927. After graduating from the Fine Arts Academy, Çoker took lessons from one of the famous painters of the period, Şefik Bursalı.
After graduating from the Fine Arts Academy, Çoker took lessons from one of the famous painters of the period, Şefik Bursalı.
After the training, he gained experience by working for almost 6 years in the workshop of Turkish painter Zeki Kocamemi.
He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul in 1951 and won the European Concourt Prize in 1955. He went on to study in Paris on a scholarship from the Turkish state. In Paris, he worked at the studios of André Lhote, Henri Goetz, and Hayter, as well as at the Emilio Vedova Studio at the International Salzburg Summer Academy.
After completing his master artist education, he started to work as an assistant in the painting department of the Fine Arts Academy.
After completing his master artist education, he started to work as an assistant in the painting department of the Fine Arts Academy.
He became a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1976, and the director of the painting and sculpture museum in 1977. In 1979, he resigned from the directorate of the painting and sculpture museum.
In 1983, he was appointed as the head of the painting department of the MSU Fine Arts Faculty.
Coker was an instructor at the İstasyon Academy of Fine Arts from 1960 to 1995. He performed demonstrations of painting with music from 1961 to 1966. He has had more than 20 solo exhibitions, over 20 group exhibitions, and has been the recipient of eight national and two international awards.
Yes, I did this to strike a blow to Turkish painting! I made one special. They are making pictures headlong. There is nothing right. You must have seen the other paintings… Let alone the Turks, even the foreign artists at the fair were not good.
Why was that?
They do what they want just because they came to Turkey. It's not right, it's fake!
Is this a situation specific to our fairs? Or are fairs abroad like Art Basel or Frieze the same?
No, that's how they are here. They say, "Anyway, it's good for Turkey". No, it's not good for Turkey! not good for me! So…
Don't Turkish artists do any good work lately?
So are they… Why don't they paint properly? Didn't you learn to paint in time? Some of them learned at the academy, and after leaving, they took another job. Why are you taking another job, keep doing the job you know best! That's how I get angry... But there's no picture like this!
What exactly are you angry about? Are there new ideas?
Well they are trying to pass a lot of tricks under the name of innovation!
How do you view new genres such as installation and video art?
Some of them are beyond me. It's what I'm doing! Other things they say, of course. Why should I be like them? I think there are some bad ones among them.
What do you say to the criticism of “canvas painting is dead now”?
Come on sir, come on sir... You're dead! You are dead before painting! That picture is always alive, but you are alive and you are not living? Where is the image you produced? Look, I'm getting angry like this, but there is no painter messam in Turkey! Not in Istanbul, none in Ankara! Ankara is zero, Istanbul is a bit better… For example, Nuri İyem, if you see it, you will be amazed. Are these done bro? What's this? Bad bad pictures. Do they have to be in Turkey? There is no such picture. Obsessed with communist pictures of a time. I don't have any. They walk from Anatolia to the art of painting as if the originality comes from there. No Such Thing. Beneath them is bullshit, not pictorial criticism. The great artists I know are followed, not the person on the street. This is how it is all over the world. Look at the Italian painters. How awesome they are!