Ibrahim Balaban Biography
İbrahim Balaban (1921 - 2019) was born in Bursa, Turkey in 1921. He was imprisoned when he was young. While in prison he devoted himself to painting, in doing so he realized his ability to paint. When he was imprisoned for the second time in 1941, he met Nazim Hikmet, a Turkish poet and they became friends. From him he took lessons in art, history, philosophy, political economy for seven years incessantly. In 1950 he was released from prison taking advantage of an amnesty. He opened his first solo exhibition in Istanbul, at the French Cultural Center in 1953 and then held more than 50 solo exhibitions. His production includes publications that include 11 books consisting of memoirs, essays (on painting), short stories and two novels. In 1959, together with sculptor Vahi İncesu, Mata Kaya Tözge, Kemal İncesu, Avni Memedoğlu and İhsan İncesu, he founded a group called "New Dal Group". Members of the group were arrested for their paintings in the exhibition they opened in 1961 and were acquitted 50 days later. The group disbanded in 1963. Balaban, however, continued to paint after the group disbanded. He subsequently held solo exhibitions in Germany and the Netherlands in 1979-1980. Between 1982 and 1985 he created several series of paintings, the main ones are titled "People Wandering on the Sidewalks" and "Migration", "Images of Producers", "Joy of Children", "Women of Anatolia".
