Nejad Melih Devrim his life and art

If we take a glance at the art medium which Nejad Devrim, one of the first significant painters implementing abstract thinking in Contemporary Turkish Painting, is raised in: First step in establishing a western sense is the painting lessons given at military schools starting from 1793. Then comes remarkable developments as Turkish Painters proceeding in Turkish Art medium as well as painters of foreign countries, minorities or Levantines; the court getting interested in western painting; art students being sent to Europe for education and the establishment of ?Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi? (School of Fine Arts) in 1883 by the attempts of Osman Hamdi. Foundation of this school has started an academic based education and its graduates, especially the ?1914 Kuşağı/Çallı Kuşağı? (1914/Çallı Generation), have started a new period in Turkish Art History. Afterwards, the exponents of the first artists? constitution of the Republic period ?Müstakil Ressamlar ve Heykeltraşlar Birliği? (The Autonomous Painters and Sculptors Union) established in 1929 and ?d Gurubu? (d Group) established in 1933 have underlined the problems of painting itself by their constructive attitude. Hereafter conceptual painting instead of nature imitation was discussed. An opponent art group ?Yeniler? (The Newests) stated that painting was not only a matter of technique and an artist should be involved in the social issues. Nejad Devrim took place in Turkish Art History just at these times. The group members, including Nejad Devrim, first accepted ?Social Realism?, then some of them favoured constructivism, even some preferred abstraction and gradually reached an abstract painting style. After a while as some gave up abstraction and searched for new styles, painters as Selim Turan and Nejad Devrim, who will be analyzed in this study, chose going to Europe and became significant representatives of abstraction in Turkish painting.These attempts for abstraction in Turkish painting have started around 1950?s. These years are regarded as the opening period of Turkey to the world and thus, the period of Turkish painters having the opportunity of meeting foreign artists and following the developments in Western world. The traditional and modern ambivalence concurrent with the Paris art media is an important development in Turkish Art.As a significant actor of the Turkish contemporary art movement in the midst of 20th century, Nejad Devrim died in Nowy Sacz, Poland on 26th of February, 1995. He has a considerable importance both in Turkish and Western Art.