Dirimart is pleased to present the first exhibition of Jak İhmalyan at the gallery, marking the sixth artist whose estate the gallery recently announced its representation of. The exhibition, held at Dirimart’s Pera space, will feature nearly one hundred paintings and drawings by the artist, offering a comprehensive insight into his practice and introducing his works to a broader audience.
Born in Istanbul in 1922, Jak İhmalyan began his art education during Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’s early teaching years at the Academy of Fine Arts. At a young age, he participated in the landmark 1941 Liman [Harbour] Exhibition, recognised as the first show in Turkey’s modern art history to focus on street life and the people’s daily lives from an insider’s perspective. However, in 1949, due to his engagements with the Communist Party, İhmalyan was forced to flee to Beirut without a passport. During this time, he built lasting friendships with figures such as Abidin Dino, Aziz Nesin, Ara Güler, Nâzım Hikmet, and Türkkaya Ataöv, who, through their writings, memories, photographs, and testimonies, documented both İhmalyan and his art. These connections kept his ties with Turkey intact despite the long distances. After Beirut, İhmalyan lived in the capitals of Eastern Bloc countries, including Warsaw, Beijing, and Moscow, where he sought to shape his life according to his ideology. He passed away at an early age in Moscow in 1978.
Throughout his dedicated life, İhmalyan never ceased to paint. In addition to being a painter, he also worked as a radio host, graphic designer, and educator, continuing his artistic production as much as his circumstances allowed – and often in spite of them.
Running from 19 April to 18 May 2025, the exhibition Jak İhmalyan at Dirimart Pera will, for the first time, bring together a wide-ranging selection of works dating from 1968 to 1978, carefully preserved by the İhmalyan family. The works are grouped under eight thematic sections rather than following a chronological order. The exhibition opens with pieces that mark significant events and moments in the artist’s life. These are followed by works that reflect İhmalyan’s early fascination with street life and the stories of others. The exhibition then focuses on İhmalyan’s interpretation of ‘Anatolian painting,’ a theme central to many Turkish artists during the same period. In these works, he blends Western iconography with Anatolian ethnography, offering a pictorial expression of the coexistence of diverse cultures on Turkey’s soil since ancient times. This is followed by still lifes, landscapes, and nudes produced parallel to his academic training and reflect his evolving stylistic language.
Another group of works explores the expressive hand gestures evident in many of İhmalyan’s black-and-white paintings, created using bitumen varnish, an oil-based medium. The exhibition then moves on to a series of portraits featuring figures from İhmalyan’s family and close circle – those who bore witness to his life. Among the highlights are his circus-themed works, which remain some of the most intriguing in terms of the artist’s sources of inspiration. The exhibition’s final section presents works where the previously mentioned themes verge on abstraction, featuring İhmalyan’s distinctive visual language in which he blends colour fields with figuration.
Jak İhmalyan is one of many artists in Turkey’s art history who, due to ethnic or religious categorisations in art historical narratives and period studies, has not yet received the full recognition he deserves and remains to be rediscovered. With a rich selection of works at the exhibition and an accompanying monograph to be published during the show, the exhibition aims to open new questions and areas of curiosity about his life and artistic practice.
Jak İhmalyan can be visited at Dirimart Pera until 18 May 2025. Visitors can also join free guided tours at 5.00 p.m. on all open gallery days, offering a deeper engagement with the exhibition.
