Last week, the work of imprisoned Turkish journalist, artist and SND member, Fevzi Yazici, “Dark White” opened for display at the Hillstrom Museum of Art. The collection features over 40 drawings, most of which were done from Yazici’s prision cell in the Silivri Prison in Istanbul.
The display will run from February 14 though April 24, 2022.
In 2016, Fevzi attended the SND conference in San Francisco where he spoke with his friend, Greg Manifold, creative director at The Washington Post, about design, their countries and families. A few months later, the coup in Turkey had changed everything. Manifold recalls Fevzi telling him, “This can not be real. I cannot recognize my country.”
Fevzi was arrested that summer and initially sentenced to life in prison as a part of crackdown on the press who were often charged with connection to an opposition leader and attempting to “eliminate the government of Turkey.” The United Nations denounced the conviction of Fevzi and his co-defendants in a statement: “The court decision condemning journalists to life in prison for their work, without presenting substantial proof of their involvement in the coup attempt or ensuring a fair trial, critically threatens journalism and with it the remnants of freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey.”
“It’s clear to me, Fevzi was born to be a visual artist. He’s unafraid, passionate and a wonderful storyteller,” Manifold said. “It’s uplifting to see that his time in solitary confinement hasn’t defeated this spirit, but at the same time, agonizing to think of the conditions he’s living in daily. His sentence was recently reduced to 11 years and three months.
Hillstrom Museum of Art Press Release
On view at the Hillstrom Museum of Art from February 14 through April 24, 2022, will be Fevzi Yazici: DARK WHITE, featuring over 40 drawings by imprisoned Turkish journalist and artist Fevzi Yazici (b.1972).
Fevzi Yazici, who holds a degree in graphic design from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, served as the design director of the city’s Zaman newspaper until 2016. At that time, the Turkish government shuttered the paper, and Yazici and colleagues were imprisoned as part of that crackdown on freedom of the press following a coup attempt against the government party.
Yazici was originally sentenced to life in prison on terrorism charges but in 2019 the Turkish Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 11 years and 3 months. He has appealed the adjusted sentence and while imprisoned has continued to produce meticulous drawings on paper.
Most of the works in DARK WHITE were done from Yazici’s prison cell in the Silivri Prison in Istanbul. His drawings are subtle in imagery and shading and are created using what has been described as a “thousands of spots technique,” which he uses to make detailed transitions from white to black.
DARK WHITE appeared in its original form in early 2020 at the Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, which organized and is circulating the exhibit. The version at the Hillstrom Museum of Art includes 20 new drawings by Yazici. It is supported by a grant from the Tourism and Visitors’ Bureau of the Saint Peter Chamber of Commerce.
A brief video introduction for the DARK WHITE exhibit, produced by the artist’s wife Firdevs Yazici, can be viewed on the College’s YouTube channel and is linked on the Museum website at: https://gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom/exhibitions.php.
A fully illustrated catalogue for Fevzi Yazici: DARK WHITE will be available free of charge at the exhibit. A pdf version of the catalogue is attached, and will be available on the Museum website, as will a link to a video walk-through tour of the exhibit that is being planned for inclusion on the College’s YouTube channel.
The concurrent exhibition Recent Donations and Other Acquisitions of the Hillstrom Museum of Art features over 30 artworks acquired by the Hillstrom Museum of Art since mid-2018, mostly the result of donations from 10 new donors and one repeat donor. Twenty American artists are represented in the group of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture. Nine are artists new to the Hillstrom Collection, among them Paul Cadmus (1904-1999), Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953), and Ross Moffett (1888-1971).
The Museum is grateful to the donors of the works on view: Mary, Lisa, and Martin Austin; Ann Bruggeman; Deborah Dash Moore and Deena Dash Kushner; Mac Cosgrove-Davies; the Walter S. Feldman Trust for Artwork at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; the Joseph and Betsy Ritz Friebert Family Partnership; Andrew Hellmund; Gary and Carol Langness; Daniel Shogren and Susan Meyer; James F. White; and James Woods and Sons.
As with the concurrent DARK WHITE exhibit, a fully illustrated catalogue for Recent Donations and Other Acquisitions of the Hillstrom Museum of Art will be available free of charge at the exhibit. A pdf version of the catalogue is attached, and will be available on the Museum website at https://gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom/exhibitions.php, as will a link to a video walk-through tour of the exhibit that is being planned for inclusion on the College’s YouTube channel.
Regular Museum hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and weekends, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. All exhibitions and related programming are free and open to the public.
NOTE that COVID restrictions currently in place at Gustavus Adolphus College require that masks be worn indoors, including in the Hillstrom Museum of Art. For updates to COVID restrictions, see the Museum website at https://gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom/.