Nurullah Berk, 1906-1982

One of the first artists of the Republican generation, Nurullah Berk was also one of the founders of the d Group, whose members adhered to a cubist contructivist approach to painting that opposed impressionism, which still enjoyed mainstream status in the 1920s. In the 1930s, influenced by the cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque, Berk produced works in the same genre using objects like tables, bottles, and playing cards as his subjects. By the 1950s, the influences of Fernand Léger and André Lhote weighed heavily in his work, and he focused on local themes. With his paintings of solid-color arrangements on a geometrical substructure, Berk sought to create yet another synthesis between Eastern and Western art. With the influence of the d Group, Berk depicts traditional arts in his works based on structural patterns. 

“Sleeping Beauty” features objects like rugs, pillows, curtains, chairs, and vases scattered in the background of the painting and rendered without perspective like in miniature paintings.