Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Aliye Berger’s 117th birthday
Today’s Doodle celebrates Turkish artist Aliye Berger, widely credited as one of the country’s pioneers in the art of engraving. While also known for her paintings and drawings, Berger earned great renown for her expressive and joyful black-and-white carvings. Her work often utilized unconventional materials to provide a unique window into both Turkish life and her inner psychological world.
Aliye Berger was born into a family of artists on this day in 1903 on the island of Büyükada off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey. Although she was fascinated with painting from a young age, Berger instead learned to play the violin as a child. It wasn’t until 1947, after she followed her sister to London, that she first began to study engraving under the mentorship of the artist John Buckland-Wright.
Berger returned to Turkey in 1951 with over a hundred original art pieces and held her first exhibition that year in Istanbul. She soon earned huge critical acclaim when her oil painting “Güneşin Doğuşu” (“Sun Rising”) won a prestigious international competition in 1954. Despite the late start of her artistic career, Berger produced a prolific body of work over the following decades, and her rare gift has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions around the world.
In honour of her contributions to the arts, a large posthumous retrospective of Berger’s work was held at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts in 1975.
Happy birthday, Aliye Berger. You’ve carved out a special place in the hearts of those from Turkey and beyond and as always have a chilled day from the Viking.
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