Sabri Berkel on the axis of abstract tendencies in modern Turkish painting

The life, artist identity, educator side and works were examined in this research titled 'Sabri Berkel on the axis of Abstract Tendencies in Modern Turkish Painting'. Research findings were collected from literature reviews. After the opening chapter, on the second part, the definitions of cubism, analytic and synthetic cubism were addressed to explain abstract tendencies of Sabri Berkel. In the subsection 'The Life of Sabri Fettah Berkel' of the third chapter titled 'Sabri Berkel', the reflections of his education and the schools he had attended on his art, his artist and educator personality were examined as a process starting from Umetnicka Skola (Belgrade School of Fine Arts in 1927 to the workshop of Fellice Carena in Regia Accademia di Belle Arti (Florence Academy of Fine Arts) between 1929 and 1935 and finally to the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts. On another subsection of the third chapter titled 'The Art of Sabri Berkel', his sense of painting, art opinion, and technique were presented chronologically through his works. On the fourth chapter, artists like Nurullah Berk, Cemal Tollu, Elif Naci, Fahrelnissa Zeid, who went to Europe to continue practicing abstract and searching for new forms, were reviewed under the title 'Painters in the era of Sabri Fettah Berkel'. Sabri Berkel, who has an important place in Turkish Painting Art, had created an identity with research and analyzes his contemporary art and artists. At the first glance, it is comprehensible that his motivation was not just producing art works. It could be seen that form and content of painting merges and there is an underlying philosophy which questions this. Despite the fact that the works of Sabri Berkel in Turkish Art show tendencies to western art; the eastern trails like calligraphy, marbling, stains, and geometrical abstractions made him one of the significant artists of this geography. Key Words: Turkish Painting, synthetic cubism, analytic cubism, Sabri Berkel.