Renowned cartoonist honored in exhibition

ISTANBUL

The life and work of cartoonist Latif Demirci, who died two years ago, is commemorated with a new exhibition in Istanbul, curated by his daughter.

İŞ Sanat Kibele Art Gallery commemorates the late Latif Demirci, one of Türkiye's prominent cartoonists, known for his unique sense of humor, witty lines and the characters he created, with an exhibition titled “Written-Drawn by LATIF DEMİRCİ.”

Curated by the artist's daughter Yasemin Demirci and his close friend, journalist İhsan Yılmaz, the exhibition is designed by Emre Senan.

“My father used to reveal the simple humor in every story and pay attention to the fine details. I didn't know how large his archive was until I started collecting his personal belongings and drawings. We think it is very important to see this archive and his never-seen drawings,” said Demirci.

"A very colorful, humorous history of the last 30 to 40 years of Türkiye can be written with the help of Latif's caricatures," said Yılmaz, adding that with this exhibition, they aim to honor Demirci's art and introduce him to new generations.

The retrospective exhibition, which brings together Demirci's works in a chronological and thematic order, with the adventures of the cartoon characters he created, the books he published and his different works, covers his artistic life from the Gırgır (a well-known humor magazine in Türkiye) period, which started in 1970s, to his last cartoon published in 2022.

The exhibition has been realized after a comprehensive archive study was carried out among the works of Demirci, who kept the originals and published versions of all the cartoons he drew since Gırgır— the albums he compiled into books, his never-seen watercolor works and his drawing notebooks.

On display are the cartoons featuring unforgettable characters such as Canavar Koyun Orhan, Muhlis Bey, Arap Kadri, Yavlum Mithat ve Mirsat, Press Bey, as well as the cartoons he drew for weekly magazines such as Nokta and Yeni Gündem, and the daily front page cartoons that continued for many years in daily Hürriyet.

The exhibition reflects Demirci's artistic life chronologically and divides it into sections. There are also his special works drawn for Latife Tekin’s novel “Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları,” as well as drawings from the National Geoglathif album, in which he describes the complex relationship of humans and animals in daily life with satire, entertainment and masterful lines.

Yılmaz prepared the exhibition catalogue, which will be published by Türkiye İş Bankası Publishing House. The texts in the catalog are accompanied by the memoirs and articles written by Latife Tekin, Yasemin Demirci, Turgut Çeviker, Hasan Bülent Kahraman, Selçuk Demirel, İrfan Sayar, Atilla Atalay, Tan Oral, Bahadır Baruter, Metin Üstündağ, Mehmet Çağçağ, Behiç Pek, Ergün Gündüz, Evrim Altuğ, Erdil Yaşaroğlu and Zafer Temuçin.

The catalog also includes the artist's caricatures and photographs from his family album.

“Written-Drawn by LATIF DEMİRCİ” can be visited through June 30.

Born in Istanbul in 1961, Demirci’s first caricature was published in the Gırgır magazine in 1975, when he was only 14 years old. After working for “Fırt” magazine, he founded “Hıbır,” another famous magazine in the country, in 1989 with some other caricaturists.

He received the cartoon award from the Turkish Journalists Association in 2004, 2009 and 2011, and published 23 cartoon albums.

He died at the age of 61 on June 5, 2022, due to a fatal accident at home. Demirci had been drawing caricatures for the first page of daily Hürriyet for years until his death.