1930–24.07.2012
Nevin Çokay
Nevin Çokay (1930–2012) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul in the studio of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu and belonged to the student group Group Ten. She held her first exhibition in 1953 and from the following year painted full time. In 1979 her work was shown in the Netherlands for a year, and later she taught and worked in her studio in Foça.
Biography
In the early 1950s the future painter sang in a choir. From 1950 to 1953 Nevin Çokay was a member of the State Choir for Turkish folk music at Istanbul Radio, directed by Nedim Otyam. The choir toured with concerts and folk-dance programmes, and in 1952, according to some accounts, went to Italy. Under Otyam’s direction she appeared in the film “Yurda Dönüş” (“Return to the Homeland”), and she also worked as a voice artist in film dubbing.
Her studies ran alongside.
She was born in Istanbul in 1930; the exact date of birth differs between sources, so it is safer to give only the year. Her childhood and school years were spent in various towns of Anatolia. In 1947 she entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul and studied in the studio of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. She graduated in 1953, though 1954 is also given. During her student years she joined Group Ten (“On’lar”), which drew attention at the time. In 1953 her first solo exhibition took place at the Maya gallery in Istanbul, run by Adalet Cimcoz. From 1954 Çokay devoted herself entirely to painting. She showed her work in annual solo exhibitions and in group shows: at the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture in Istanbul and at the Paris Biennale for young artists. In 1961 she won second prize at the Istanbul Art Festival. In 1979 she was invited to the Netherlands: for a year her paintings were exhibited in museums and galleries in Deventer, The Hague and Rotterdam, and she was reportedly interviewed for Dutch television then.
Çokay’s works are held by the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture in Istanbul, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Istanbul municipality, Istanbul University, an art gallery in the former Yugoslavia, and public and private collections in Germany and the Netherlands. By some accounts she painted several hundred pictures. I would not judge her manner without seeing the canvases themselves, and it is safer to speak only of where and when she exhibited.
For many years she also taught. She spent seventeen years teaching painting and art history in high schools, and in various galleries and in her own studio she gave drawing and painting lessons for about ten years.
In her last years Çokay worked in her studio in Foça, in İzmir Province. She died there on 24 July 2012 and was buried in Foça.
Profile notes