Deep in his atelier in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, Arif Sami Gürpınar, heir to his celebrated father Hüseyin Gürpınar's artistic legacy, upholds the craft passed down to him in childhood.
He has preserved some 50 abandoned portraits — most painted by his father on commission long ago and left behind — for nearly 50 years, seeking to reunite them with their original owners at no cost.
Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Gürpınar said painting was a legacy passed down from their father and noted that many of his seven siblings, as well as their children, also became painters.
Having grown up surrounded by paints and canvases, the 62-year-old said he chose to work in advertising, where he could apply his artistic skills, as he believed it would be difficult to make a living solely from painting.
Gürpınar said he carried his artistic abilities into the advertising sector. “The harmony in signboards and beautiful lettering added a different dimension to our work. With recommendations from satisfied clients in Kayseri, we worked in various cities, especially in holiday resorts,” he said.
Emphasizing that he always loved his profession, Gürpınar added, “We worked in advertising for many years. We never left painting behind; instead, we adapted fine art into advertising and carried it to different dimensions. Visuality was always at the forefront of our signboards. That set us apart from our colleagues and made us preferred. I always saw signboards as canvases. We were both the graphic designers of the period and the practitioners in the field. Today’s printing machines were our hands back then. Especially during election periods, we painted posters of parliamentary and mayoral candidates on huge pieces of fabric using spray paint. In fact, that is not the job of an advertiser but of a painter. We combined the two.”
‘If I die, my son will complete my unfinished work’
Gürpınar said that while working in advertising, he also painted commissioned portraits.
He expressed his wish to deliver 50 portraits drawn by his father and himself to their owners, noting that many were sketched nearly half a century ago by his father but were never collected by those who ordered them.
Saying he experienced similar situations himself, Gürpınar continued: “After my father died, these paintings were left to me. We could not throw them away because the people in these drawings are someone’s father or mother. They are also the work of my father and myself, so we have kept them for half a century. I display them in my studio in hopes of reaching their owners. We also share them on social media. If anyone recognizes a family member among them, we give the portrait free of charge.”
He recalled that around six years ago, a visitor to the studio identified his father in one of the portraits. “When he showed us his father’s photograph, we confirmed it and gifted the drawing to him,” Gürpınar said.
“We want to reunite all the portraits with their owners or their families in the same way. I will continue this work until I die. If I pass away before delivering them, my son will complete my unfinished work,” he added.
