‘Feminity’ by Zeid fetches nearly 1.3 million at auction

ISTANBUL

The 41st Contemporary and Modern Arts Auction, organized by Beyaz Müzayede on Nov. 20, broke a
new record.

One of the pioneers of Turkish contemporary art, Fahrelnissa Zeid’s famous portrait “Feminity,” which she made for her student Ufemia Rizk, found a buyer for 1.26 million Turkish Liras and became the highest-paid artwork at the auction.

The auction presented 221 artworks from 133 artists at the Orjin Art Center. Art lovers from Turkey and abroad showed great interest in this first auction of the season.

Another work by Zeid, “Bedouin,” which was on the wall of her home in Jordan in the 1980s, was sold for 620,000 liras, becoming the second highest-paid work at the auction.

Adnan Çoker’s 180x360 centimeter masterpiece titled “Retrospective,” dated 2015, was sold for 600,000 liras. Many of Fikret Mualla’s gulash works on big-size papers were sold in the auction. One of the works found a buyer for 190,000 liras, the highest price so far. Others were sold at prices between 140,000-190,000 liras.

Among other works sold in the auction were a painting by Erol Akyavaş for 440,000 liras, Cana Tolon for 280,000 liras and Nuri İyem for 227,000 liras.

A work by Selma Gürbüz was sold for 227,000 liras and became the highest price paid for a Gürbüz painting.