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Hale Asaf

Sole woman member amongst the founders of the Independent Painters and Sculptors Union, the first artists' society in the Republican Era in Turkey

Date of Birth: 1905

Place of Birth: Istanbul

Date of Death: 31/05/1938 1938

Place of Death: Paris

Burial Site: Thais Cemetery, Paris, France

Topics

Gallery

Field of Activity

Painting

Throughout her entire artistic life, Hale Asaf exhibited an inquisitive spirit. In the beginning, she adopted a constructivist design sensibility; and this sensibility merged with an expressionist outlook developed during her German period. During the time of her studies in Istanbul, in paintings produced with short, sharp brushstrokes and in her plein air studies, she did not revert to prior patterns.

During the Paris years, in the beginning, the artist studied and experimented with Late Cubism; she achieved a synthesis uniting what she had learned since the age of 14 with Art Deco's sinuous lines; and came to an artistic sensibility that was wholly her own. In the exibitions in which she participated in Paris, Hale Asaf received acclaim because of her individual, distinctive style.
(Burcu Pelvanoğlu, Hale Asaf: Türk Resim Sanatında Bir Dönüm Noktası, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul, 2007, p. 116)

Exhibitions

1926 Galatasaray Exhibition, Istanbul
1929 Ankara Ethnographic Museum, First Exhibition of Young Painters, Ankara
1929 Independent Painters and Sculptors Union (Müstakil Ressamlar ve Heykeltıraşlar Birliği), Istanbul
1930 Independent Painters and Sculptors Union, Ankara
1930 Montparnasse Summer Exhibition, Paris
1931 Independent Painters and Sculptors Union's Fourth Exhibition, Moskovit Salon, Istanbul
1931 Independent Painters and Sculptors Union Exhibition, Istanbul
1932 Jeune Europe (Young Europe) Gallery, Paris
1933 Jeune Europe (Young Europe) Gallery, Paris
1933 Tuileries Exhibition, Paris
1933 Jeune Europe (Young Europe) Gallery, Paris
1935 Society of Independent Artists' Fall Salon Exhibition, Paris

Collections In Which Her Works Are Found

(Selected)

Painting and Sculpture Museum, Istanbul
Istanbul Modern Art Museum, Istanbul
Painting and Sculpture Museum, Ankara
Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul
Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul

Hale Asaf as a Teacher

September, 1928 Art Instructor, Bursa Girls' Normal School (Teacher's College), Bursa
1929 French Instructor, Necati Bey Girls' Art Institute of Bursa, Bursa
December, 1929 Assistant to Senior Instructor Namik Ismail, Fine Arts Academy, Istanbul
1932 Director of the Jeune Europe (Young Europe) Gallery/Library, Paris

Awards

(No information available)

Memberships

1929 Independent Painters and Sculptors Union (Müstakil Ressamlar ve Heykeltıraşlar Birliği)

Education

Notre Dame de Sion French Girls' Lycee

1921 Fine Arts Academy, Berlin
1924-25 Student of Feyhaman Duran and İbrahim Çallı at the Akademie of Fine Arts for Girls (Inas Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi), Istanbul
1925 Student of Lovis Corinth, Munich
1927 Student of Andre Lhote, Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris

Contributions to Society

Hale Asaf was among the founders of the Independent Painters and Sculptors Union (Müstakil Ressamlar ve Heykeltıraşlar Birliği), established on 15 July 1929.

The Independent Painters and Sculptors Union was an association seeking to provide artists an opportunity to be able to work in an atmosphere of secure acceptance, of freedom to pursue their individual artistic visions.

Family and Friends

Mother: Enise Hanım
Father: Salih Bey (President of the Court of Appeals)
grandfather: Asaf Pasha (Aide-de-Camp of Sultan Abdulhamid II, reigning 1876-1909)
Aunt: Mihri Müşfik (woman painter)
Marriage: Ismail Hakki Oygar (ceramicist)
Friends: Fikret Mualla (Painter), Refik Epikman (painter), Cevad Dereli (painter), Mahmud Cuda (painter), Nurullah Berk (painter), Ratip Aşir Acudoğlu (sculptor), Muhittin Sebati (painter), Ali Karsan (painter), Ali Hadi Bara (sculptor), Şeref Akdik (painter), Elif Naci (journalist, painter), Fikret Adil (journalist, author), Antonio Aniante (author), Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu (poet), Eren Eyüboğlu (painter), Salih Urallı (painter), Ossip Zadkine (sculptor, painter), Carlo Sergio Signori (sculptor), Ivan Goll (poet), Curzio Malaparte (author) Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (painter), Alberto Giacometti (painter, sculptor, printmaker), Fernand Léger (painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramic artist, director), Chaïm Soutine (painter), Giorgio de Chirico (painter, printmaker), Zog I, Skanderbeg III (King of Albania, reigning 1928 -1939)

Commemorative Projects