Ismet Guney
[ SEE PHOTOS BELOW STORY ]İsmet Vehit Güney was born in Limassol, Cyprus on the 15th of July in 1923. His father Vehit Yusuf was an officer at the municipality of Limassol and his mother Yegane was a housewife. Ismet was the eldest of three children. He had a sister named Zehra and a brother named Ahmet.
İsmet’s childhood years were spent in a multicultural neighbourhood in Limassol where Turkish, Greek and Armenian Cypriots all lived together peacefully. His first experience with painting began in primary school. His teacher would place a vase of flowers on a table and ask the pupils to draw it. İsmet’s parents however, were not particularly pleased with their son’s interest in art and took steps to try and curb his enthusiasm. Güney once wrote in a memoir that his mother was always upset whenever he painted at home because of the mess he would make.
As a young boy, İsmet met a Turkısh man who came from Egypt and set up a signwriting shop in his neighbourhood in Limassol. İsmet would often go and observe the signwriter who in his spare time would paint landscapes using oil paint. “There was absolutely no one else around me who was painting like this,” said İsmet. “The art scene in Cyprus in those days was pretty much non-existent.”
Thanks to influences at school and people such as the Turkish signwriter, İsmet began to experiment with paint and to some extent; his earlier work would depict an enhanced sense of colour and composition.
In 1935, İsmet attended a Turkish High School in Nicosia, which was known as the Islamic High School at the time. He bought an exercise book and started to use graphite (greylead) pencils for the first time. He would spend the time between his lessons drawing pictures of film stars and people such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk using photographs that he saw in magazines or on posters as reference. Encouraged by a teacher at his school named Kadi Burhan, İsmet began to experiment with watercolour and oil paints.
In 1940, after the outbreak of World War Two, İsmet Güney joined the Cyprus Volunteer Regiment (CVR) for the British Army. Apparently it was his high school English teacher Faik Müftüzade who encouraged him to join the CVR. With few jobs available in Cyprus for high school graduates, the seventeen-year-old Güney joined the army and served as a corporal-translator in Cyprus, Palestine and Italy during the war. Because of his high school education, İsmet earned a decent monthly salary as translator. During his time in Palestine, he even had the opportunity to take art lessons at a Military Academy in Haifa called Mont Carmel.
When the war ended in 1945, İsmet was discharged from the army and returned to Limassol where he continued to paint and draw. He was now twenty-two years old. A year later, he became the first Turkish Cypriot artist in Cyprus to have a solo art exhibition. The show was held at the British Consul in Limassol. After the success of his first exhibition, İsmet was asked to give lessons to a number of private emerging artists including a Greek Cypriot woman named Androulla who became very skilful under his tutelage. The two artists worked side by side for a while producing paintings for sale. İsmet once stated that it was mainly Greek Cypriot women who liked and bought his paintings.
During the late 1940s, İsmet opened a bookstore and joined the ‘Limassol Turkish Sports Club’, a meeting point for Turkish Cypriot intellectuals in Limassol. There, he became interested in theatre and participated in shows and other events. He began writing poems and stories and drawing caricatures, many of which were published in daily newspapers such as Ateş, Köylü, and İstiklal.
In 1946, İsmet decided to become a teacher. He attended the Teachers Training College in Morphou which was the only educational institution in Cyprus that accepted students from both communities. The instruction was mainly taught in English. When he graduated two years later in 1948, he started teaching art (and art history) at the Nicosia Turkish Boys’ Lycee. Thankfully, the principal of the school allowed İsmet to convert a large room at the school into an art studio where he could teach drawing and painting. He eventually established a painting club and a photography club at the school guiding his students towards creative pursuits. At the same time, he continued to write articles about art in newspapers in order to raise public awareness about art. The newspapers would sometimes include İsmet’s original cartoons and caricatures.
Besides teaching, İsmet continued to exhibit his art in Cyprus. In 1947, he held a successful exhibition at the British Institute in Nicosia where he was also gained work as a trainee art teacher. In 1949, he had a show in the exhibition-hall of the Victoria Secondary School and later at the prestigious Ledra Palace Hotel in Nicosia. Although he was influenced by the Impressionist movement, he saw himself in the Romanticism movement.
İsmet taught at the Nicosia Turkish Boys’ Lycee for 29 years from 1948 until 1977.
Many people felt that İsmet’s artwork was a positive contribution to the cultural life of Turkish-Cypriot society, particularly to female students even though many girls would often turn their heads with embarrassment in front of a nude painting.
In 1951, İsmet Güney met and married Tomris Hanim. Apparently, he spotted her one day walking down the street in Nicosia wearing a green dress and he was instantly attracted to her. Tomris, a primary school teacher (who also played the violin) was from Nicosia. In 1952, Ismet and Tomris welcomed the birth of their daughter Nilgun followed by another daughter, Fatma in 1964.
In 1956, İsmet visited Turkey where he met the celebrated Impressionist Turkish artist Ibrahim Çalli. In an interview with Kemal Ankaç in 1999, İsmet describes meeting Ibrahim Çalli for the first time. “He was 74 when I first met him. We were like father and son. He would call me son and I called him ‘maestro’. I remember he had a lot of paintings in his workshop. One day he selected six of his paintings and gave them to me as presents. He behaved that way to show how much he appreciated my friendship.”
On another occasion, İsmet remembers admiring a painting that Çalli had painted in his workshop of a nude. The Turkish master upon seeing his pupil from Cyprus admiring his painting immediately reproduced an exact copy and presented to him as a gift.
Whenever İsmet would paint with Çalli he tried not to adopt the master’s techniques but rather to develop his own creative style. Although İsmet was often regarded as an Impressionist artist he saw himself as a Romanticism-style painter inspired by artists such as Corot, Delacroix, Constable and Turner.
İbrahim Çalli certainly took İsmet Güney under his wing. He exposed him to the rich culture of arts and painting that existed in Turkey at that time. İsmet became a member of the Turkish Painters and Artists Association. He attended the 57th anniversary exhibition of Statues and Paintings where he was invited to exhibit one of his own artworks. Çalli introduced İsmet to some of his artist friends such as Hikmet Onat, Feyhuman Duran, Berdi Rahmi, and Zeki Faik. İsmet would continue to visit and work alongside İbrahim Çalli every summer until the maestro’s death in 1960.
In the 1950s, İsmet formed an Art Club at the Bayraktar Turkish Maarif College in Nicosia. The club was formed out of necessity and sheer frustration after he realised there were very few places in Cyprus where aspiring artists could go to learn how to paint and practice their art. Evidently, the club became popular with students from all over Cyprus who were taught how to paint in oils by İsmet himself.
In 1960, İsmet saw an advertisement in his local newspaper calling for artists to submit their designs of a new flag for the Republic of Cyprus (following the island’s recently acquired independence). The competition rules stipulated that the flag should NOT include red or blue colours (the colours of the flags of Turkey and Greece), nor should the design portray a cross or a crescent. İsmet decided to enter the competition.
Out of the five hundred entries submitted, İsmet’s flag design was selected as the winner by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Makarios III and the Vice-President Fazil Küçük. Apparently, Makarios had asked İsmet to explain his design featuring the map of Cyprus and two olive branches. İsmet explained that the colour of the map represented the copper that was found on the island and gave Cyprus its name. The two olive branches represented the Turkish and Greek Cypriots communities living together in peace. The white background of the flag also represented the cleansing of all problems with the formation of the Republic. İsmet received £50 and a letter of congratulations from Makarios for winning the flag-design competition. There is a story that Makarios once joked with İsmet saying, ‘there is something missing here on your Cyprus map. You should place two dots. One for your birthplace in Limassol and one for my birthplace in Paphos.’ Both men laughed.
Thanks to İsmet Güney, Cyprus became the first country in the world to show a map on its flag.
Makarios commissioned İsmet to also design the Coat of Arms emblem for the new Republic as well as a set of commemorative stamps and a new lira bank note. Unfortunately, he was not paid for this work. According to some members of the Turkish Cypriot press, he was promised £20 a year for the rest of his life for designing the Cypriot flag. This also did not happen.
In his 1999 interview with Kemal Ankaç, İsmet recalls how President Makarios attended one of his art exhibitions in Nicosia and purchased two of his paintings. ‘Once the troubles started in the 1960s,’ laments İsmet, ‘the two Cypriot communities got separated for good. At that time, we were paying a very high price for materials due to a Greek-imposed embargo. I could not go over to the Greek side to purchase art materials and I couldn’t find any on our side. It was so difficult without art materials that I did not produce any paintings during this period – not until 1967.’
In 1967, İsmet received a scholarship to study at the prestigious Stranmillis College at Queen’s University in Belfast. Whilst in Ireland, he was able to visit many galleries and museums, which obviously helped to broaden his already impressive knowledge of art and art history.
İsmet Güney had other creative talents beyond design, drawing and painting. He developed a keen interest in photography and built himself a small darkroom at the back of his family home. He taught himself screen printing (serigraphy) and also worked in advertising for a while, later in life, he would work for an offset printing house doing colour separations. In most instances he taught himself many skills and excelled in all of them. With his art however, he always enjoyed painting landscapes about Cyprus, still life compositions and nudes. He painted all from life.
When the bi-communal clashes broke out in 1963, The Güney family had to flee from their home in the Çağlayan area of Nicosia. When they were finally able to return home two years later, they found that the house had been looted with many items stolen including most of İsmet’s art.
İsmet’s daughter Nilgun grew up to follow in her father’s footsteps. ‘Of course, I was also influenced by my father,’ she once stated in a recent interview for the ‘Yenidüzen’ newspaper. ‘When I was a little girl, I would watch my father paint. I loved looking through his art books. His studio was a room in our house and I loved the smell of this studio. I loved the different materials he used, the brushes, the paint tubes, everything. When I graduated from high school, I wasn’t thinking of studying anything other than art. I studied at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts. I have always been proud that my father drew the flag of the Republic of Cyprus. The design of this flag is humane, it expresses the idea of peace and at the same time, it shows the nature of Cyprus.’
‘My father created landscapes, portraits, nudes and still life paintings consisting of fruits and flowers of Cyprus,’ continues Nilgun. ‘His art often reflected the rural life of the region he lived in. He developed a personal style by combining the influences of Romanticism, Classicism and Impressionism. In his landscape paintings, he usually depicts a tree, a path, a large rock, a sunset, clouds, a beach, a shepherd, sheep, cows or peasants working in the fields. In the paintings, the beauty and charm of nature are compared with small human figures. These figures that seem vague from a distance,’ adds Nilgun, ‘should remind us that all living beings are a small part of Cyprus.’
İsmet Güney died of cancer on the 23rd of June in 2009. He was eighty-five years old. It is said that when he died, there was a canvas sitting on his easel.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to offer my special thanks and gratitude to İsmet Güney’s daughter Nilgun Güney for her help and support in writing this short tribute to her father. Nilgun is herself a professional artist and educator. I would also acknowledge and thank Mr Sermen Erdogan for his help in translating and transcribing the few articles and videos about İsmet Güney from the Turkish Cypriot language into English.
If anyone knows anything else about İsmet Güney or was in fact one of his pupils, please, please add your comments to this post. You may also if you wish send me an email: conemmanuelle@talesofcyprus.com
Many thanks,
Constantinos (Costas) Emmanuelle
