Avni Lifij: The New Age of His Era

Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM), with the contributions of Sabancı Holding, is hosting an exhibition reflecting the multifaceted output of Hüseyin Avni Lifij (1886-1927), who holds a distinctive place in Turkish art history, between 15 October 2019 and 12 January 2020. Continuing the series of exhibitions previously realized with the support of Sabancı Holding and examining different periods of Turkey's art history—"Feyhaman Duran. Between Two Worlds" and "Selim Turan. Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis"—this exhibition represents Hüseyin Avni Lifij, one of the most innovative figures of the 1914 Generation, through a selection of approximately 1,000 oil paintings, studies, drawings, sketches, preparatory works, photographs, archival materials and personal belongings, alongside masterworks not exhibited for a long time, and encompassing his work as a pioneering critic, writer and photographer. Conceived and curated by SSM Director Dr. Nazan Ölçer, "Avni Lifij. The Modern of His Age" exhibition aims to evaluate the artist's identity comprehensively and for the first time in Turkey across all its dimensions, clarifying his pioneering position within the 1914 Generation and Turkish art history. The unique collection of paintings and drawings, as well as archival materials, preserved with meticulous care by the artist's wife Harika Lifij and subsequently by her relatives, notably Şazi Sirel and Belkıs Aksoy, up to the present day, are being exhibited for the first time alongside the artist's masterworks. In the selection reflecting Avni Lifij's prolific output, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting and Sculpture Museum, the Ankara Painting and Sculpture Museum under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Library collections and works of Avni Lifij from private collections—ranking among the masterpieces of Turkish art history—are brought together. Man with a Pipe: Self-Portrait of the Artist, Portrait of Marshal Fevzi Çakmak, Allegory, Self-Portrait of the Artist and other works by Avni Lifij, not exhibited for a long time and never previously presented from private collections, are meeting the public.