MUSTAFA AYAZ

One of the prominent names in Contemporary Turkish Art, Mustafa Ayaz was born in 1938 in the village of Kabataş, district of Çaykara, at the province of Trabzon. His childhood which coincided with the crisis ridden years of the Second World War was spent struggling with poverty and the diseases. He first got the opportunity to go to school at the age of ten when he started to develop an interest in art. In 1953, he entered the Pulur Village Teacher’s School at the province of Erzurum. In the last year of the Secondary School he drew the attention of his teachers and was suggested that he should take the entrance examination to the Art Seminar of the Primary Teacher’s School at Çapa, Istanbul. He took the entrance examination and was successful. It was as early as then, when his course was determined. That course was to lead him to art. In 1959 he graduated from Çapa Primary Teacher’s School. After one year of teaching, he entered the Art Department of Gazi Teacher’s Training College and graduated in 1963. In the three years that followed, he taught art and headed the studio at the Çorum Primary Teacher’s School. In 1966 he passed the examination for assistantship at the Art Department of Gazi Teacher’s Training College and taught art here until 1984 when he transferred to the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Hacettepe and retired in 1987.

Having acquired the title of professorship in that same year he was appointed to the Faculty of Fine Arts of Bilkent University where, at the beginning of 1988 he resigned. After that he worked in his own studio. He held over sixty exhibitions in Turkey and received nineteen awards. He participated in a multitude of biennials and joint exhibitions in many countries like India, Kuwait, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Belgium, France, U.S. of America, England, Algeria and Germany. Hundreds of his works have found their way into collections abroad and thousands of his works are kept in domestic collections. Mustafa Ayaz has a museum in Ankara. Ayaz worked on printmaking at IMOGA in 2014. Mustafa Ayaz passed away in 2024.

www.mustafaayaz.com

Selected Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

1967 State Fine Arts Gallery, Ankara

1972 State Fine Arts Gallery, Ankara

1976 Artisan Art Gallery, Ankara

1977 State Fine Arts Gallery, Ankara

1980 Tiglat Art Gallery, Istanbul

1980 State Fine Arts Gallery, Ankara

1981 ODTU Exhibition Hall, Ankara

1983 Akbank Art Gallery, Istanbul

1984 Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Ankara

1984 Urart Art Gallery, Ankara

1987 Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Ankara

1988 Gorbon Art Gallery, Istanbul

1990 Atatürk Culture Center, Istanbul

1993 Kibele Art Gallery, Izmir

1993,1994 Doku Art Galleries, Ankara

1995,1996 Doku Art Galleries, Ankara

1995,1996 Kibele Art Gallery, Izmir

1996 S. Yaşar Art Gallery, Izmir

1997 Garanti Art Gallery, Istanbul

1999 S. Yaşar Art Gallery, Izmir

1999, 2000 Doku Art Galleries, Istanbul

2000, 2001 Doku Art Galleries, Ankara

2005 Doku Art Galleries, Ankara

2005 Doku Art Galleries, Istanbul

2005 S.Yaşar Art Gallery, Izmir

2007 Mustafa Ayaz Art Gallery, Ankara

2008 Doku Art Galleries, Istanbul

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Mustafa Ayaz Art Gallery, Ankara

 

Group Exhibitions

1972 Le IV. Festival International de la Peinture Cagnes-sur-mer

1973 Bulgaria Exhibition

1973 Iskenderiye Fair

1981 On the Occasion of the Centenary of Atatürk's Birth, An Exhibition of Turkish Painting, Amman

1981 On the Occasion of the Centenary of Atatürk's Birth, An Exhibition of Turkish Painting, Belgrad

1981 On the Occasion of the Centenary of Atatürk's Birth, An Exhibition of Turkish Painting, France

1981 On the Occasion of the Centenary of Atatürk's Birth, An Exhibition of Turkish Painting, USA

1981 Group Exhibition, Bonn-Germany

1982 Group Exhibition, Egypt

1982 5th Art Trienalle, India

1983 Exhibition of the Contemporary Turkish Paintings, Kuwait

1983 Group Exhibition, Romania

1983 Painting Exhibition, organized by the French Embassy

1984 Contemporary Turkish Art Exhibition, Algeria

1985 Contemporary Turkish Art Exhibition, Germany

1987 Wood Print Exhibition, Turkey and Germany

1989 Galerie Kutscha, Salzburg