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ne of Turkey’s first female painters, Vildan Gizer, was born in Istanbul in 1089. Despite his early death, her father, himself an outstanding painter and calligrapher, instilled a passion forart in Vildan. After being educated privately, Vildan studied painting with Salvador Valery, one of the
Italian professors at the Turkish State Academy of Fine Arts.
Vildan was then married to Dr. Hikmet Gizer (1881 - 1966), who was a talented artist both in painting and, particularly, in architecture even though he was a medical doctor by profession. When Dr. Hikmet was sent to Vienna as Turkey’s Red Cross representative during the First World War, Vildan accompanied him and pursued her interest in painting there.
Vildan’s most successful works are her portraits. Nevertheless, yielding to the existing social and cultural pressures of her day, which prescribed feminine modesty, the artist never exhibited any of her works. At the time of her death in Istanbul in 1974, all of her paintings, including works both in pastels and in oils, were in the collections of her daughters.
Melek Celal Sofu is another of Turkey’s pioneering female artists. Born in Istanbul in 1896, Melek grew up in a highly cultural environment. Unlike most of her contemporaries, she received a bilingual private education after which she married the prominent Istanbul lawyer Celal Sofu. After her husband died in
Vlldaıı Glzer eserlerinden bir portre 1906. One of Vildan Glzer’s portraits (1906).
Meiek Lampe’s last one-man show was held in Munich in 1964 and included scenes and human types of Istanbul
as well as portraits of some of her German friends. Today, most of the works of this artist, who did not paint in order to earn a living, are in the collections of her family and friends. A few of them can be seen in the collection of the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture.
Apart from her painting, Meiek Lampe was also a successful sculptress and author of many books on art and culture. Although she gave up sculpture early in favor of painting, one of her most impressive works in this genre, a bronze head of the Polish artist Bilinski, can be seen in the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture. Her books, which cover a variety a subjects such as Turkish embroidery and calligraphy, have been tianslated into English, French and German.
İstanbul Şehir Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi Taha Toros Arşivi
