Parallel Lives: The Eyuboglus and the Urens

Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This week, we take a gentle scolding from a loyal reader who thinks we have been dazzled by shiny new trends and neglecting the old masters. So we are going back to the pillars of Turkish culture: Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu and his Romanian-born wife Eren, a turbulent partnership, two fierce talents and a reminder that modern Turkish art was built as much on collaboration as on charisma. We revisit Orhan Kemal’s sharp portraits of the hard life of debt and unemployment, only to find that our final section suggests the country’s economic story has not exactly grown softer.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: Through Thick and Thin

The works of Bedri Rahmi Eyubo IsBank Painting and Sculpture Museum glu at IsBank Painting and Sculpture Museum (Isbank)

Located at the heart of Istiklal, IsBank has an outstanding permanent collection of Turkish paintings and a knack for quietly confident, sharp-eyed exhibitions. The present one, aptly titled “Side by Side,” holds two narratives in tension: the famous one everyone thinks they know, and the quieter one waiting to be heard. It pairs two artist couples across two floors — the storm-weathering, bohemian Eyuboglus and the understated, academic Urens — both of whom left decisive fingerprints on 20th-century Turkish painting.

Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu and Eren Eyuboglu need little introduction. Their half-century partnership folded Anatolian folklore, patterns and poetry into the vocabulary of modern Turkish art. Bedri Rahmi became, as curator Omer Faruk Serifoglu puts it, “a myth who carried Turkish art to an international scale.” At the same time, Eren — Romanian-born, Paris-trained along with Bedri Rahmi at Andre Lhote’s studio — “earned her rightful place with her own universal artistic language much later.” Their canvases mostly radiate joyful turbulence, the visual record of a marriage where passion and art constantly collided. Bedri Rahmi’s best-known love poem, “Black Mulberry (“My black mulberry, my forked darky, my gypsy … my baby, my stallion, my wife”) was not directed at Eren as often assumed, but to his lover, Maria Gerekmezyan, whose painting is also part of the exhibition.

Upstairs, Melahat and Esref Uren offer a different register. Working largely mid-century, the Urens built a quieter, introspective universe: Esref, a legendary art teacher, with his melancholic lyricism, and perhaps the least known of the four: Melahat, whose works were never exhibited during her lifetime, with her prim and pensive self-portrait (see below).

Melahat Uner, wife, student, unrecognized painter, in her own brush (Is Bank)

“What we wanted to do was to cast the light on the two women, who their charismatic husbands somehow overshadowed,” said Zuhal Ureten, the IsSanat director.

Paintings, letters, sketches, poems and archival ephemera stitch these four lives into a single narrative, written in shared studios, shared debts, shared triumphs and the stubborn endurance of companionship. For those who want to know more, Serifoglu is giving a Turkish-language lecture on Eren Eyuboglu on Nov. 22.

📍Where: Istiklal Caddesi No: 144 Beyoglu

🗓️ When: Until July 2026

2. Word on the street: Serica

Artichokes and edible flowers (Serica Facebook)

Serica sits inside The Bank Hotel Istanbul, a restored 19th-century bank on Karakoy’s Bankalar Caddesi, where marble columns and vault arches still carry the swagger of the old financial district. Chef Yigit Alicioglu builds his menu around regional Turkish ingredients (Aegean herbs and vegetables, Black Sea fish) treated with a restrained, modern hand. The wine list favors Turkish producers; the room favors late sunlight on stone facades. 

📍Where: Bankalar Caddesi No. 5, Karakoy

3. Istanbul diary

Emre Tura’s “Momentary” at RE:FORM (EKAV)

• “RE:FORM” at EKAV presents the tenth edition of the EKAV-ARTIST New Generation platform, curated by Feride Celik and featuring young talents such as Bahar Posta, Busra Kolmuk, Cigdem Yildirim, Emre Tura, Sesil Beatris, Sevda Alat and Seval Konyali. This year’s edition leans heavily into material experimentation and future-facing narratives. Until Dec. 18.

• “What Inspires the Artists for Their Ideas?” at Sanatorium brings together 13 artists including Jan Albers, Burak Bedenlier, Irmak Canevi, Simin Keramati, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg and Jaan Toomik, under curator Necmi Sonmez. The exhibition explores how cultural identity, belonging and political positioning shape studio practice. Until Dec. 20.

• “Non-Place” at Loft Art in Nispetiye gathers 11 independent artists — Ayse Gurpinar, Berk Arikan, Ecem Naz Dalmaz, Eylul Civelek, Handan Akarsu, Hilal Gok, Mehtap Yayla, Selver Yildirim, Sevdiye Cerrahoglu, Suheda Karaosmanoglu and Yagmur Yilan — in a group show centered on imagined, shifting and intangible spaces. Part of Loft Art’s ongoing effort to give independent voices a home, the exhibition runs until Nov. 30.