| Art Profile |
: |
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Süleyman Berk was born in Bursa in 1964. He finished his primary, middle and high school education in Istanbul. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Marmara University in 1988. He started learning sülüs and nesih writings from the master Yusuf Ergün (Erzincani) in 1979. He continued learning calligraphy from the great master Hasan Çelebi. During his studies at university, Berk learned rik’a writing from Prof. Dr. Muhittin Serin. Between 1983 and 1988, he learned calligraphy from İsmail Biçer who was an imam at Bayezid Mosque in Istanbul.
In 1999, Berk completed his doctoral degree with the thesis “Celi Sülüs Script and Tuğra Aestheticism in the Calligraphies of Mustafa Rakım”. In 2001, he received the award “Devlet Hüsn-i Hat” from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Berk worked as a country mufti in the Department of Religious Affairs until 1994. Between 1994 and 2000, he worked as an assistant at a university. Since 2002, he has taught calligraphy at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Art and Career Education Courses (İSMEK). In 2005, he was given a Calligrapher Identity Card by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In order to introduce the art of calligraphy, Berk was sent to Australia by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In 2009, he served as a training adviser in the Culture and Art Center of Zeytinburnu Municipality.
Berk has written many papers and participated in numerous symposiums and conferences. He has also had many calligraphy exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. In addition, he has served as a jury member in many calligraphy competitions. Berk has published many books such as “Hattat Mustafa Râkım Efendi” (Istanbul: Kaynak publications, 2003), “Eyüplü Hattatlar” (as an editor), (Istanbul: Eyüp Municipality, 2004) and “Hat San’atı” (Istanbul: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, 2006), and “Zamanı Aşan Taşlar (Istanbul: Zeytinburnu Municipality, 2006).
Reference: osmanli.org.tr, atcp.com.au, istanbulunustalari.com, İstanbul’un Ustaları (Istanbul: İstanbul 2010 Avrupa Kültür Başkenti, 2010), p.103.
|
