Prof. Adnan Çoker

Prof. Adnan Çoker was born in Istanbul in 1927. He graduated from the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts in 1951. He won European Concourt Prize in 1955 and went to Paris with a scholarship from the Turkish government. He established the “Blue Group” with his four friends in 1963. With a state grant from France, he worked at the studio of famous painters such as Andre Lhote, Henri Goetz and Hayter in Paris. He attended Emilio Vedova′s Studio in the International Salzburg Summer Academy. Çoker was an instructor at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1960-1995. He performed "Demonstrations of Painting with music" between 1961 and 1966. He has had many solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennials in Turkey and abroad. Prof. Çoker has received over ten prizes, including the Friendship and Peace Art Award of the Third International Asia-European Arts Biennial in 1990.

All the unique elements and values in Adnan Çoker′s paintings are individual in and of themselves, thereby distinguished from the absolute, and truly united as one at the organic working level. The artist sees black not so much as a color but as space, a sense of dimension, integral to his works. The principal subjects of his work are traditional values and nature, as can be seen from their titles: Sky Dome, Double Monument, Tribute to Sinan, Oriental Niches.