Bohemian

life of FİKRET MUALLA

Fikret Muallâ Saygi (1903, Istanbul, Turkey - July 20, 1967, Reillanne, France) is a 20th century avant-garde painter of Turkish descent. He was born in Istanbul, but lived and worked in Paris, a long time since 1939 as an artist.

As his mother desired to have a daughter, she gave him a girl's name "Mualla". Fikret Mualla was very much beloved by his mother. This relationship played an important role in his further life. At his age of 12, he was crippled at his rightfoot in 1915 when he kicked hardly to imitate his uncle Hikmet Topuzer, a footballer at Fenerbahçe SK. Not a long time later, he lost his mother from a flu. He held himself responsible for his mother’s dead as he infected the disease to his mother.

The childhood accident, leaving Mualla with a bad physical condition, contributed to his erratic personality and mental disorder later in his adult years. He was institutionalized a number of times, from alcohol dependency and extreme paranoia. In 1928, he was hospitaled in Berlin due to delirium.

Later he returned to Istanbul, he obtained an attest of normal mental health after a three-day stay in Bakirköy Psychiatric Hospital.

Fikret Mualla was appointed teacher for drawing to a highschool in Ayvalik. However, he resigned from his teaching that he found it diffuculty and moved to Beyoglu neighborhood in Istanbul.

He became friends with soprona Semiha Berksoy, writer Nazim Hikmet and painter Abidin Dino. His first exhibition in 1934 with drawings, watercolor paintings and designs did not find much attention. In 1936, he was hospitaled again for about one year. After his release, he decided to leaveTurkey, where he felt he was not understood. Before he went 1939 to Paris again, he made around thirty oil paintings for theTurkish pavillion at the New York World's Fair asked by his close friend Abidin Dino.

His life time in Paris passed with alcohol dependency, mental alienation and cognitive dissonance. He fell in love with the femaleTurkish painter Hale Asaf but she didn’t love him. He was put in hospital again for two months, but during this time he never suspended painting. He was put in hospital again for two months. French model Dina Vierny saved him from being deported. In 1954, Fikret Mualla opened his first exhibition in Paris

He became friends with many renowned artists including Pablo Picasso. And ıt was told that Picasso had praised his paintings and bought one. Later he gave one of his paintings to Fikret Mualla,too. He later would sell a signed work of Picasso for one bottle of wine. Following his second exhibition, he was hospitaled again.

Well-known now as a drinker and mad man, he started to be respected as a painter. His ilness-starred, Fikret Mualla paralyzed in 1962. He moved to Reillanne, a village in southeastern France. By May 1967, he was put in a clinic after nervous disorders escalated. In the morning of July 20, Fikret Mualla was found dead in his bed. According to his will, his remains were brought toTurkey and were interred at Karacaahmet Cemetery in Istanbul.

Main theme of his works Fikret Mualla drew his paintings in orter to be happy. In his works we see his own feelings but he didn’t reflect his miserable life to his paintings. He drew colourful pictures filled with the joy of the life.

He mostly used watercolours and crayons in all his works. These are the cheapest materials. Because he did not have any money during his poor life.