Füreya Koral

Füreya Koral (June 2, 1910 – 25 August 1997) was a pioneering ceramics artist born into a prominent artistic family in Turkey.

Known for her wall panels, Koral worked in a variety of media such as tiles and statuettes, and also created ceramic-inlaid tables and stools. She started working on ceramics after she was diagnosed with tuberculosis while receiving treatment at a sanatorium in Switzerland. Seeking to push the limits of ceramics beyond its function, she was inspired by the art of the ancient civilisations of Turkey, Mexico, and East Asia, especially Japan, and her work often combines elements taken from both Western and Eastern artistic traditions.

She signed her works with the anglicised version of her given name, Fureya.

Early life Füreya Koral was born in Büyükada, Istanbul. Her father was Mehmet Emin Paşa, a notable soldier and statesman in the Ottoman Empire and then a companion to Atatürk, her mother was Hakkiye Hanım, and her grandfather was Mehmed Şakır Paşa, an Ottoman statesman and historian. Like her aunts Fahrelnissa Zeid, Aliye Berger, and Ayşe Erdem, and her uncle Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı (the Fisherman of Halicarnassus), Koral was an enthusiast of music, painting, and literature.

She studied at the Lycée Notre Dame de Sion in Istanbul and graduated from a private Jewish High School in 1928. She then enrolled at the Department of Philosophy at the Istanbul University Faculty of Literature in 1929, but her father's illness and mandatory retirement forced her to quit university before graduating as the family's financial situation deteriorated.

In 1930, she moved to Bursa after marrying a farm owner named Selahattin Karacagil. The couple divorced in 1932, and in 1935 she remarried to Kılıç Ali, a close friend of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. After Atatürk's death, the couple moved back to Istanbul. She also met the art critics Jacques Lassaigne and Charles Estienne who advised her to stage an exhibition.

Her first solo exhibition opened at Galerie M.A.I. in Paris in 1951 and was followed by a solo exhibition in Turkey at the Maya Gallery founded by Adalet Cimcoz, one of the first private contemporary art galleries in the country. This exhibition featured wall ceramics inspired by the çini (tile) tradition and other works that treated folkloric themes. Encountering Mexico's widespread mural tradition reinforced her belief that art should not be trapped in museums and paved the way for the large panels she would go on to make for public spaces.

After returning to Istanbul in 1958, Füreya designed ceramic coffee cups for the Pavilion of Turkey at the Expo '58 Brussels World Fair. She also continued her collaborations with architects, ranging from Utarit Izgi to Haluk Baysal, Melih Birsel, Abdurrahman Hancı, and Selçuk Milâr. She created large-scale panels for the Marmara Hotel in the grounds of the Atatürk Forest Farm in Ankara in 1959; for the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 1965; for Ziraat Bank, Başak Insurance, and the Istanbul Textile Traders’ Market (Manifaturacılar Çarşısı) in 1966; for the Anafartalar Market in 1967; and for the Divan Hotel in 1968.

Füreya Koral died on 25 August 1997.

Exhibitions "For me ceramic art, first of all is like a tool, or a book, or music. A tool to express the world, to make my own world come alive, a tool that makes living and sharing possible. I mean ceramics are not just decorative items or objects of consumption." (Füreya Koral, from her interview with Zeynep Oral, published in Milliyet Sanat on February 15, 1993) Füreya participated in exhibitions at numerous galleries and institutions, including Salon d'Octobre, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City; Naprstkovo Museum, Prague; and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Opened in the fall of 2017, a posthumous retrospective of her work at Akaretler Sıraevler, Istanbul included over 200 pieces, presented alongside archival materials such as letters and photographs. Organised by Károly Aliotti, Nilüfer Şaşmazer and Farah Aksoy, the exhibition aimed to present a comprehensive study of her work, which has, perhaps, been overshadowed by her gender and her family's important role in late Ottoman and early Turkish history.

In June 2022 some of Füreya's coffee tables and stools from Turkey's Grand National Assembly Art Collection (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Sanat Koleksiyonu) were shown in the new Galataport cruise terminal in Karaköy as part of the Beyoğlu Cultural Road festival alongside family photographs and memorabilia and copies of photographs of the artist taken by Ara Güler.

Culture Ayşe Kulin's novel Füreya, published in 2005, tells the ceramicist's story in fictional form.