Abidin Dino

(1913, Istanbul – 1993, Paris)

Abidin Dino stands out in 20th-century Turkish art for his line-based visual language and interdisciplinary approach. Spending his childhood between Geneva, Paris, and Istanbul enabled him to develop a multilayered visual memory from an early age.

In 1933, as one of the founding members of the D Group, he contributed to the formation of modernist painting in Turkey. His work on cinema in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, and his contact with figures such as Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Yutkevich, expanded his visual language.

In the 1940s, together with the Yeniler Group, he developed a socially realist direction. From the 1950s onward, he settled again in Paris, situating his practice within an international context. During this period, line became a central means of expression in his work.

Dino’s oeuvre can be read through the balance he established between local references and a universal visual language. In particular, his drawings centered on the theme of “hands” powerfully reflect his poetic and intellectual approach.