Footnotes

• Provenance: UK private collection; acquired directly from the artist in the mid 1970s.
  
  Fureya Koral (1910-97) was the niece of Fahrelnissa Zeid. Born to Hakiye and Emin Koral, she studied philosophy at Istanbul University, and wrote music criticism for Vatan Daily. Two failed marriages resulted in her breakdown in 1945 and she attended a sanatorium in Switzerland, where her aunt Fahrelnissa Zeid would send her art materials from London, introducing her to the world of art and ceramics. She would advise her: "In order to achieve a masterpiece, first you have to feel yourself within the picture, you must settle yourself in it with all your existence"; or "Choose your colours that describe a world in which you wish your beloved ones could live in", a piece of advice which may be considered an important clue that describes Fahrelnissa's own art.
  
  In 1947 Fureya started her tile-making studies in Lausanne and later continued her work at a private studio in Paris, holding the first of her many exhibitions in 1951 in the Maya Art Gallery, an exhibition which marked the beginning of Turkish contemporary ceramic art. She worked in a variety of media, producing tiles, statuettes and panels, blending elements of Islamic art with abstract and other influences from the West.
  
  For a similar ink drawing of Fureya Koral by Fahrelnissa, also dated August 1945 and now in the Oya-Bulent Eczacibasi Collection, Istanbul, see Ileri, Cem (ed.); Fahrelnissa & Nejad. Two Generations of the Rainbow, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, 2006, p. 138-39; and for further portraits of Fureya by Fahrelnissa, see ibid., pp. 138-42.

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Category: Islamic and Oriental Art / Islamic and Indian Art

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