On the 100th Anniversary of His Birth

A Forgotten Painter:

Saim Özeren (1900-1964)

• Mahmut Cuda: “He represented many great talents that drowned”

• He was the brightest student of the Academy. The European exam changed his entire destiny.

• He opened one of the first painting exhibitions in Anatolia in Erzurum. This was his first and only exhibition.

• He taught in middle schools and high schools for years. His only dream was to open an exhibition when he retired. He prepared for this exhibition throughout his life. However, he passed away months before his retirement.

• Mahmut Cuda had said, “It will fill the most distinguished pages of our art history” but he was forgotten after his death.

• The exhibition will meet art lovers between September 26 and October 26, 2000.

The Millî Reasürans Art Gallery is presenting Saim Özeren, a forgotten artist who was among the first generation painters after the Republic, but is not sufficiently known today, to art lovers with an exhibition and a book on the 100th anniversary of his birth and is bringing him into our art history.

Saim Özeren, who was among the first students of İbrahim Çallı and shone among his friends with his talent and intelligence during his years at the Academy, was destined to fail the European exam held in 1924. He would say that he was not sent to Europe “because his eyesight was bad”, but art circles would look for deliberate obstruction by the Academy circles in this surprising result. Saim Özeren’s friends who went to Europe would also not be able to take a place on the Academy staff until they became the director of the Léopold-Lévy Painting Department.

Saim Özeren, who lost his father and was living in financial difficulties, was dismissed from the Academy, where he worked for eleven years, and was appointed as a secondary school art teacher by taking the exam. His teaching career, which he began in Erzurum in 1926, ended with his death in Istanbul in 1964, 38 years later. Mahmut Cûda would summarize his artistic life with the words, “He represented many great talents that drowned.”

While still a student, Saim Özeren, who took part in the establishment of the “Yeni Resim Cemiyet” (New Painting Society), the first plastic arts group of the post-Republic period, with his friends, and whose works were selected for the Galatasaray exhibitions, the most important art events of the period, opened his first and only exhibition in Erzurum in 1928. The Minister of National Education, Necati Bey, who was in Erzurum at the time, visited the exhibition and purchased a painting he liked on behalf of the ministry. This painting is today in the Ankara State Painting and Sculpture Museum.

After Erzurum, Saim Özeren worked in Trabzon. No word was heard from Saim Özeren for ten years. However, he had not broken away from painting, and he would never break away from it throughout his life. Because for him, painting was an instinct that came from within and filtered from the mind, it was the meaning of life, it was a way of relating to the world.

However, Istanbul had not yet forgotten the “Great Saim” of the past. He was among the first ten painters chosen for the Yurt Gezisi that started in 1938. He went to Konya. His works received positive criticism. In 1942, he would be chosen for Yurt Gezisi for the second time and go to Hakkari.

Saim Özeren’s forced provincial life ended when he came to Istanbul in 1939. His friends had become prominent figures in the art of painting over the years. He contributed works to the exhibitions of the Independent Painters and Sculptors Union in Istanbul. He participated in the State Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions between 1945 and 1950. However, his name was not heard of afterwards. However, he always remained a painter. His only dream was to retire and open an exhibition by devoting himself entirely to painting. Unfortunately, he could not realize this exhibition to which he devoted his entire life. He passed away months before his retirement. Mahmut Cûda had said of him, “He will fill the most distinguished pages of our art history,” but he was forgotten after his death.

In 1986, the name of Saim Özeren was heard of in art circles again after many years with the exhibitions organized by Ferit Edgü in the Vakko Art Galleries in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Ferit Edgü said that he had not even been aware of the existence of such an artist until Saim Özeren’s family brought him his paintings. Saim Özeren was forgotten so much even among artists two generations later.

Millî Reasürans Art Gallery director Amelie Edgü says the following about the exhibition and book: “I have always wondered about Saim Özeren, whose works I first saw in 1985, as a person and an artist. His paintings had emerged, but he himself was in the mist. It was very dramatic for an artist whose name was once prominent to be forgotten so much. Saim Özeren has always been on our program since I started working at Millî Reasürans Art Gallery in 1994. We were only able to realize the project about him now, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. I think the book we prepared in addition to the exhibition will permanently add him to our art history. Murat Ural conducted the biographical study in the book. Ayşe Gür and Dilek Şener helped him with the research. They were able to create a biography despite working with very little data. Levent Çalıkoğlu interpreted Saim Özeren’s art and artistic personality. He questioned his place in Turkish painting. I think this exhibition is the personal exhibition he always dreamed of making and devoted his entire life to.”

Saim Özeren's exhibition can be viewed at the Millî Reasürans Art Gallery between September 26 and October 26.