HOCA ALİ RIZA

17 September 2014 – 28 December 2014

Hoca, used as a nickname for Ali Rıza Bey, means teacher or master. Ali Rıza Bey, who really enjoyed his role as an educator, starting with his teaching painting at the Military School, transformed this job into a way of living. He is also the painter of Üsküdar, where he was born and raised and spent most of his life. In the History of Turkish Painting, he is referred to as “Hoca Ali Rıza” or as “Ali Rıza from Üsküdar”. In his paintings of sea shores depicting the streets of Üsküdar, the wood houses with bay windows, stone pines, he has included the human figure as a complementary element. He is the first Turkish painter to observe nature, translating his love for nature into lines and colors. After a sensibility that expressed nature in fixed forms, Hoca’s approach is realistic and based on observation. This attitude necessitates his meticulous description of details. Tree branches, leaves on branches, bushes, wildflowers, the true depiction of rocks forms are all some of the details that he works with in his paintings. In his imagery, his landscapes that stem from “ïdeas”, to use Hoca’s terms, is the summation or synthesis of scenes that he saw and recorded either in his mind or in his notebooks.

“Hoca Ali Rıza” exhibition offers an opportunity to rediscover the art of this great master through his paintings from Arkas Collection and other prominent Turkish private collections.