Who is Fikret Otyam? Books and Awards

Fikret Otyam (b. 19 December 1926, Aksaray; d. 9 August 2015, Antalya), Turkish painter, journalist and writer.

He became known with the interviews he wrote about Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia. He has collected these interviews in numerous books. He depicted the Anatolian people in his canvases as well as in his interviews and photographs. He often used goats and headscarved Anatolian women as figures. He described Anatolian women with big eyes, small nose and small mouth.

She is the wife of the famous composer and conductor Nedim Vasıf Otyam and the weaving and photography artist Filiz Otyam, the brother of the pharmacist and poet Nusret Kemal Otyam.

life

He was born in Aksaray in 1926. His father is a soldier and pharmacist Vasıf Efendi, and his mother is Naciye Hanım. He had two brothers named Nedim and Nusret Kemal; He also had a sister named Neşecan. His father Vasıf Efendi, one of İsmet İnönü's comrades in arms, worked as a pharmacist in Aksaray after his retirement from the army. Otyam, who completed his primary and secondary education in Aksaray, continued his high school education intermittently in Ankara and Kayseri.

After high school, he went to Istanbul and continued his education at the State Fine Arts Academy Higher Secondary Painting Department and took lessons in the workshop of the famous painter Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. He graduated in 1953. He got married the same year and his daughter Elvan was born the next year. He had two daughters named İrep and Döne from this marriage.

He started journalism in the newspaper Son Saat in 1950 while he was still a student at the State Fine Arts Academy. He became the assistant of writer and editor-in-chief Ali İhsan Göğüş in Dünya newspaper published by Falih Rıfkı Atay; He then worked for Ulus newspaper.

Otyam, who traveled to Southeast and Eastern Anatolia for the first time in 1953, became known with interviews he wrote about Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia during his journalism life. He has collected these interviews in numerous books. He broke up with his first wife and married artist Filiz Otyam in 1977.

Otyam, who has been a columnist for Cumhuriyet newspaper for many years; After the murder of Abdi İpekçi, he thought that his own life was also in danger and decided to retire. He built a house next to Deliçay, under Selinus Castle in Gazipaşa district of Antalya, and concentrated on painting and publishing his books in this house where he and his wife Filiz Otyam settled in 1979. Finally, he worked as a columnist in Aydınlık newspaper.

He is one of the founding members of the Mediterranean Journalism Foundation and the Golden Orange Foundation for Culture and Arts. Fikret Otyam, who had been treated for kidney failure for a while, passed away on August 9, 2015 in Antalya. Otyam's funeral was buried in the "Trace-Leaving Aydınlar Cemetery" in Nevşehir's Hacıbektaş district.

After his death, a memorial ceremony was held for Otyam at Çankaya Contemporary Arts Center.

Books 

The films he has written 

• Earth (1952) 

Photo exhibitions 

• 1964 - 1974 Gide Gide Series
• 1979 If Anybody Watered Us
• 1983 The World Should Be Beautiful
• 1997 Through Otyam's Lens
• Group exhibition with Filiz Otyam and İbrahim Demirel

Painting exhibitions 

• 1947 - 1953 exhibitions with "They Group"
• 1976 Human Landscapes from My Country
• 1978 Human Landscapes
• 1987 - 1997 joint domestic and international painting and weaving exhibitions with Filiz Otyam

Awards 

• 1962 Journalists Association Press Honor Certificate
• 1980 - 1990 Press Honor Certificate of the Decade
• 1995 Atatürkist Thought Association Honor Plaque
• Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts Photography Institute Honorary Certificate
• 1996 3rd Haci Bektaş Veli Friendship and Peace Award
• Pir Sultan Abdal Certificate of Honor
• AEA UNESCO Turkey National Committee of the International Association of Plastic Arts Certificate of Honor
• Akdeniz University Honor Certificate
• Şanlıurfa Culture Education Art Research Foundation Honor Certificate