[TURKISH MODERNISM / “D” GROUP / AVANT-GARDE] D Grubu, 1939. Grubun Güzel Sanatlar Akademisinde açtığı 7inci sergi münasebetiyle. Abidin Dino, Arif Kaptan, Bedri Rahmi [Eyüboğlu], Cemal Tollu...

D GRUBU.

Cumhuriyet Matbaasi, Istanbul, 1939.

Complete title: D Grubu, 1939. Grubun Güzel Sanatlar Akademisinde açtığı 7inci sergi münasebetiyle. Abidin Dino, Arif Kaptan, Bedri Rahmi [Eyüboğlu], Cemal Tollu, Eren Eyüboğlu, Elif Naci, Eşref Üren, Halil Dikmen, Nurullah Berk, Salih Urallı, Zeki Faik İzer, Zühtü Müridoğlu.

Original wrappers. Large demy 8vo. (22,5 x 15 cm). In Turkish. [26] p., 11 photographic b/w reproductions. A fine copy.

Extremely rare catalogue of the landmark seventh exhibition of the D Group, one of the principal movements of early Turkish modernism, marking the group's return after a four-year interruption and its passage from an insurgent avant-garde circle exhibiting in an Istanbul hat shop to an established presence within the Academy of Fine Arts. An exceptional association copy from the estate of Fikret Adil, the celebrated bohemian writer and art critic who witnessed and chronicled the foundation of the group, with his manuscript alterations to the roster of artists on the front wrapper. Extremely rare, both in institutional holdings and on the market.

The catalogue opens with an introductory essay by Nurullah Berk, presenting the history and artistic position of the D Group, followed by short biographies of the twelve participating artists and eleven photographic plates reproducing works exhibited at the Academy. Its striking wrapper is dominated by Dino's monumental lowercase d, printed in reddish-brown, beside the names of the participating artists, an unusually spare piece of graphic design that turns the group's single-letter identity into the principal image of the publication.

Founded in Istanbul in 1933 by five painters - Abidin Dino, Nurullah Berk, Zeki Faik İzer, Elif Naci and Cemal Tollu, and the sculptor Zühtü Müridoğlu, the D Group took its name from its position as the fourth major artists' association in Turkey, following the Ottoman Painters Society, the New Painters Society and the Independent Painters and Sculptors Association. Its distinctive lower-case "d" emblem, designed by Abidin Dino, became the visual identity of the group.

The D Group represented a deliberate break with the academic Impressionism which had dominated Turkish painting through the generation of 1914. Many of its members had recently returned from Europe, particularly Paris, where the influence of André Lhote and Fernand Léger introduced them to Cubist and Constructivist approaches to composition. Against what they regarded as an exhausted Impressionist manner, they stressed drawing, structure and the construction of pictorial form. The Ministry of Culture's history of the group describes its activities from the first exhibition onwards, exhibitions accompanied by lectures, poetry, discussions and caricature, as introducing a new element into the Turkish artistic environment, while the writings of its members helped create a new critical vocabulary for modern art in Turkey.

Its first exhibition of the group was held in 1933 in the Mimoza hat shop in Beyoğlu, where the young artists exhibited principally drawings. During the following two years the group organised six exhibitions, but after its sixth exhibition in 1935 its exhibition activity ceased for several years. The group finally re-emerged on 28 January 1939 with the present seventh exhibition, now held not in an improvised commercial space but at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, opened with an address by the Academy's director Burhan Toprak. Contemporary reports describe the exhibition as attracting considerable public and press attention.

Its first exhibition of the group was held in 1933 in the Mimoza hat shop in Beyoğlu, where the young artists exhibited principally drawings. During the following two years the group organised six exhibitions, but after its sixth exhibition in 1935 its exhibition activity ceased for several years. The group finally re-emerged on 28 January 1939 with the present seventh exhibition, now held not in an improvised commercial space but at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, opened with an address by the Academy's director Burhan Toprak.

The 1939 exhibition also marked a substantial enlargement of the group. Alongside the original members and earlier associates, Halil Dikmen, Eşref Üren, Eren Eyüboğlu, Arif Kaptan and Salih Urallı joined the group at this exhibition, bringing its exhibiting membership to twelve. A contemporary notice in Son Telgraf, two days before the opening, lists precisely the twelve artists represented in the present catalogue and anticipates the exhibition as a major artistic event. The moment consequently represents something more than another exhibition in the group's chronology: six years after its deliberately unconventional beginnings, D Group modernism had entered one of the central institutions of Turkish artistic life.

This copy belonged to Fikret Adil (1901-1973), one of the central figures of interwar Istanbul's literary, artistic and bohemian life and an unusually significant association for the history of the D Group itself. Adil was present at the group's beginnings in 1933 and subsequently recorded its history in “D Grubu ve Türkiye'de Resim” (1947). His home was itself a meeting place for artists and writers, and his contemporary writing formed part of the critical environment in which the group emerged.

Adil has personally altered the printed membership on the front wrapper, striking through the names of Abidin Dino, Halil Dikmen and Zühtü Müridoğlu, and adding “Sabri Berkel” in manuscript beneath the latter. The reason and date of these alterations remain uncertain, but they are particularly intriguing in view of the subsequent history of the group: Sabri Berkel was not among the twelve participants in the 1939 exhibition and is recorded as joining the D Group at its ninth exhibition in 1941.

Provenance: Fikret Adil (1901-1973), writer, critic, and chronicler of the D Group; from his estate, with his manuscript corrections to the front wrapper. Acquired from Ahmet Kamil Gören (1956-), art historian and critic.

Sources: As of October 2026, we couldn’t trace any copies in OCLC & KvK. Fikret Adil, D Grubu ve Türkiye'de Resim, Istanbul, 1947, pp. 7-25; Nurullah Berk, "d Grubu", Sanat Çevresi, no. 60, 1983, pp. 5-6; Nurullah Berk and Hüseyin Gezer, 50 Yılın Türk Resim ve Heykeli, Istanbul, 1973, pp. 51-52; Elif Naci, Anılardan Damlalar, Istanbul, 1973; Ministry of Culture and Tourism, "d Grubu (1933-1947)"; Sakıp Sabancı Museum, "d Grubu", exhibition texts [D Grubu = D Group, YKY], reproducing the cover of the present 1939 seventh-exhibition brochure from the Elif Tül Tolunay Archive.