We mourn the loss of Tomur Atagök, the painter, academic, and founder of academic museology education in Turkey.
Tomur Atagök, a pioneer in many areas of Turkey’s art scene, passed away. After graduating from Robert College, she continued her higher education in the United States. She earned degrees from Oklahoma State University (BFA), College of Arts and Crafts, and the University of California, Berkeley (MA) before returning to Turkey.
Atagök began her professional career as the Assistant Director at the Mimar Sinan University Museum of Painting and Sculpture. She later became a faculty member at Yıldız Technical University (YTU), where she served as the Director of Culture, Press, and External Relations. She also founded and led the Museology Master’s Program. Between 2004 and 2006, she served as the Dean of YTU’s Faculty of Art and Design.
Throughout her career, Atagök conducted numerous research projects and wrote extensively on art and museology. She held 40 solo exhibitions in the United States, the Netherlands, the Balkans, and Turkey, while also participating in various group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. She received several prestigious awards for her contributions to the art world.
Tomur Atagök’s Artistic Vision
At the beginning of her artistic journey, Tomur Atagök approached space in art as a problem of relationships between forms. Later, she shifted her focus to the dynamic and evolving relationship between the artist, the artwork, and the audience. According to Atagök, a work of art is recreated with each viewer’s perception, leading to a unique artistic outcome for every individual.
Working with metallic surfaces, Atagök combined pictorial reality and space with images, symbols, and depictionsfrom her surroundings. Through this technique, she invited the viewer to engage with their own reflection, creating spiritual and objective realities. In her artistic philosophy, the viewer’s reflection on the metallic surface physically alters the artwork, bridging art and life and allowing the painting to extend beyond its frame.
“It’s Not Easy to Describe Myself”
In 2021, Atagök participated in İşSanat’s “Gün Işığında” (In the Daylight) video series, where she offered a heartfelt narrative about her artistic journey, intellectual background, and creative process. She began by saying, “It’s not easy to describe myself,” and explained how her connection to art was intertwined with her life, womanhood, and space. She emphasized that in her metal surface paintings, she wanted the viewer to confront their reflection, fostering an interactive and living connection between art and the audience. “I wanted them to see the painting and themselves,” she stated.
Atagök described the figures in her paintings as real women—experienced, resilient, and eager to tell their stories rather than idealized forms. She saw art not only as a personal expression but also as a part of collective memory. She strongly believed that making women visible through art was a way of rewriting history.
Tomur Atagök’s Works
From the 1970s onward, women became a central theme in Atagök’s work. Through various artistic expressions, she explored female identity, existence, and relationships. Mythological female characters and goddesses frequently appeared in her works.
In 2011, she published her book “Bildiklerim Gördüklerimdir, Gördüklerim Bildiklerimdir” (What I Know Is What I See, What I See Is What I Know) with Yapı Kredi Publications. The book compiled her writings from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s, categorized under three sections: “On Women Artists,” “On Exhibitions,” and “On Artists.”
Atagök’s extensive archive, which includes written and visual materials from the 1970s to the present, along with her long-term research on museum history in Turkey and women artists, was made publicly accessible by SALT Research in December 2018.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
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“Tomur Atagök Painting Exhibition,” Vakko Art Gallery, Ankara, 1984
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“Tomur Atagök Exhibition,” Mine Art Gallery, Istanbul, 1993
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“Tomur Atagök’s ‘Endless Story: Human,'” Brieflyart, Istanbul, 2022
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“Tomur Atagök: Journals,” Elgiz Museum, Istanbul
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“Tomur Atagök: Circular Traces” (Retrospective Exhibition), Kibele Art Gallery, Istanbul, 2020
