Avni Arbas

Avni Arbas (1919–2003) was a prominent Turkish painter whose career bridged Turkey and postwar Europe. Born in Istanbul, he studied at the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy (now Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University) under İbrahim Çallı and Leopold Levy and was associated early on with the socially engaged Yeniler Grubu. In 1946, he moved to Paris on a French government scholarship, where he became part of the École de Paris and exhibited widely across Europe.

Arbas’s work blends modern European painting with distinctly Turkish subjects, ranging from portraits and landscapes to scenes of daily life and the Turkish War of Independence. He is especially known for his expressive depictions of horses, fishermen, and coastal views, marked by a lyrical yet grounded sensibility. After returning to Turkey in the late 1970s, he continued to paint until his death in 2003, leaving behind a body of work held in major public and private collections in Turkey and abroad.