Simit Seller

Jak Ihmalyan was born on 30 June 1922 in Istanbul. He took painting lessons from Abidin Dino. He studied painting at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts. Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu became his teacher. The artist, who was also a close friend of Nazım Hikmet, joined the Communist Party in Turkey. He was arrested in 1944. He was released, in 1947 and after two years, in 1949, he went abroad. He lived in Syria, Lebanon, Poland, China and finally in the USSR where he died on April 1, 1978. In Ihmalyan's works, which draw attention with the use of colour, dramatic forms and figures, the traces of Turkey, which he left in his youth, are often striking. It is another remarkable feature of his art that he was also influenced by Chinese art.