Candeğer Furtun

Candeğer Furtun graduated from Nurullah Berk's studio at the Painting Department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts between 1954 and 1957. Immediately afterwards, she joined İsmail Hakkı Oynar's ceramics studio at the same university and completed her education in 1959. She worked at the Chemistry Department of Istanbul University for a year with special permission to conduct research in the field of clay and minerals, after which she started working at the Eczacıbaşı Ceramic Factory Art Workshop. In 1961, with a Fullbright scholarship, she attended the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Craftsmen in the United States, graduated with a master's degree in 1963, and then lectured there for a period of time. Furtun, holding her very first solo exhibition at the Craft Center, Massachusetts, established her own studio in 1964 after returning to Turkey. Focusing on functional forms in the early years of her creative process from the mid-1960s onwards, her interest first turned to vessels that emphasized the features of plastic, and then to organic and natural figures. In 1969, she held her first solo exhibition in Turkey at the Taksim Municipality Art Gallery. In the 1970s, she became recognized as one of the names that brought vibrancy and innovation to the art of ceramics in Turkey. The organic figures she had experimented with earlier took the form of reliefs dominated by circular and fine lines in the 1980s. It was the 1990s where the artist reached her free-form approach when she produced her series of arms, legs, and hands; in her recent works, she has featured compositions consisting of repetitions of these human body parts. Since 1961, the artist has been widely invited to participate in group exhibitions in Turkey, the United States, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Having held her last solo exhibition at Maçka Art Gallery in 2010, Furtun's works were on view in a comprehensive retrospective organized on two separate floors of Arter between September 2021 and April 2022, curated by Selen Ansen. The artist recently featured in the exhibition "Another Round", a parallel event of the 17th Istanbul Biennial organized by Galeri Nev in the venue of Kendi Collection. Candeğer Furtun was deemed worthy of the 2023 "Aydın Doğan Honorary Award" viewed as one the most prestigious awards in Turkey.