Abidin Dino’s long-lost patterns to be unveiled

Ankara's Gallery Nev is hosting an exhibition featuring famous Turkish artist Abidin Dino's “Gerilla Desenleri,” (Guerilla Patterns) pieces, which he drew in 1941 but has never displayed before in Turkey. The exhibition opened on Friday.

The pieces, presented after a 64-year delay, can be seen through Nov. 23, and are to be accompanied by a book carrying the same name as the exhibition, written by Rasih Nuri İleri.

Dino, a pattern master, released his first patterns in Artist magazine in 1932 and a multitude of his works have been put on display in many prominent art galleries in Paris, New York, Amsterdam and Zurich.

Taking its first step into the art world in 1984 through an exhibition showcasing some of Dino's pieces, Ankara's Gallery Nev, has played host to many works by artists throughout the years. Some of them include: “Çiçekleme,” (Flowering); “Acaipler,” (The Odd Ones); “El,” (Hand) “Acıyı Çizmek,” (Drawing the Grief) and “İşkence Desenleri” (Patterns of Torture).

In the pieces currently on display, Dino reflects the resistance of the people living in the Russian city of Viyazma, and nearby villages, against the German invasion in World War II. The residents of these little hamlets, are believed to have played a significant role in turning German forces back, through inspired efforts against their German invaders. Through defiant resistance and steadfast defense of their homes and homeland, these people are also believed to have changed the fait of other European cities.

Dino understood that he was unable to display these works in Turkey during that era due to the close nature of German Turkish ties. Despites Turkey's extended neutrality in World War II, the pieces depict politically volatile content. Dino later tried to send them to be shown abroad with the help of an American friend, an archaeologist named Whitimore. Whitimore accepts the task of bringing the patterns abroad but abandons the bid at the last moment. Apparently he, in turn, handed them over to a Turkish woman, Fahrünnisa Zeid, at an airport.

The pieces were uncovered in an apartment belonging to the Zeid family many years later, but Dino delayed the showing of the pieces.

Now today, in 2005, Ankara Gallery Nev reveals these lost patterns, which were described by İleri as “abandoned to the corrosive criticism of mice and mold,” to art lovers, after 64 years.