Love, art, a shared life, a journey, and passion… Two names who built not only their lives but also their artistic journeys together: Nasip İyem and Nuri İyem. These two artists, who left deep marks in their respective fields and shaped the direction of Turkish art, became each other’s companions both in love and in art.
And now… The works bearing the traces of this unique union are reunited after 21 years. Named after the unbreakable bond between two lives and two passions for creation, the exhibition You Are Before My Eyes meets the audience at the Tayyare Cultural Center, hosted by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality. This special selection, prepared by curator Yasemin Bay, features works from the family collection as well as from Turkey’s leading collections. “For me, this title was not just about bringing the works of two artists together; it was a key to revealing the common language they built throughout their lives,” said Yasemin Bay. We talked with her about the exhibition You Are Before My Eyes, which symbolizes the artists’ enduring presence in each other’s hearts and minds.
What is the significance of bringing together the works of these two important artists at Bursa’s historic Tayyare Cultural Center after so many years?
The Tayyare Cultural Center is a venue designed by Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu, one of the important architects of the early Republican era, and holds a special place in Bursa’s memory. In fact, holding this exhibition at the Tayyare Cultural Center means bringing two different memories together. On the one hand, it is an opportunity to see the works of two important artists in the field of painting and ceramics production during the Republican era side by side after a long time, and on the other hand, it is an opportunity to experience this meeting in a historical venue of the city. The reunion of Nasip İyem and Nuri İyem’s works here after 21 years allows us to look at both the artists’ shared life and a comprehensive section of Turkish art history.
The exhibition title evokes not only Nuri and Nasip İyem’s artistic production but also the life they wove together and their mutual inspiration. How did this title serve as a starting point for you in establishing the conceptual framework of the exhibition?
For the exhibition, I thought of a title that was not just a romantic allusion, but one that signified a deep bond, one that would leave a mark on the memory and the heart: You Are Before My Eyes. It also refers to how Nasip and Nuri İyem looked at each other, at life, and at art. For me, this title was a key to not only bring the two artists’ works together, but also to make visible the common language they built throughout their lives.
The exhibition presents their individual artistic identities and shared life together. How did you balance the unique relationships Nasip İyem established with ceramics and Nuri İyem with painting, and how did you bring together different disciplines within the same narrative?
Actually, establishing this balance was not that difficult, because their art draws from the same roots. There is a natural kinship between the simplicity of the figures in Nuri’s paintings and the directness we see in Nasip’s ceramics. The common and defining element that shaped the work of both artists was always Anatolia. These are not two productions that complement each other, but rather two that stand side by side, each reinforcing its own uniqueness. The fact that the Tayyare Cultural Center consists of different galleries strengthened the exhibition concept. The Cemal Nadir Art Gallery is dedicated to Nasip İyem’s ceramics and fired clay works, while the Sami Güner Art Gallery contains Nuri İyem’s paintings. This allows us to read each artist’s language separately. The foyer in the middle area offers the viewer a shared narrative.
How do the themes of figures, nature, Anatolia, and labor, which we frequently encounter in the works of the İyem couple, engage in dialogue with today’s social issues?
In fact, when we look at today’s issues, we still encounter the same questions: the invisibility of labor, the difficulties women face, our problematic relationship with nature… The Iyem couple’s productions contain a sensitive perspective on these questions. What we see in their figures or depictions of nature is not only a thing of the past; it is a reality that touches on the present, that speaks to today.
The book, published concurrently with the exhibition, features texts by writers from different generations and disciplines. How do these texts complement the exhibition experience?
In addition to my essay focusing on the exhibition, the book includes writings by Osman Nuri İyem, Gizem Kahya İyem, Zeynep Oral, Selçuk Altun, and Feyyaz Yaman, who recount their experiences with Nasip and Nuri İyem through testimonies and insider perspectives. In this way, the book takes the exhibition beyond a visual experience and transports it into the realm of thought. Thanks to the contributions of the authors, not only art historical but also literary and sociological readings have emerged. This makes it possible to understand the exhibition in a multidimensional way.
