İlgi Adalan Archive contains more than 400 archival materials dated from 1953 to 2015 including the artist's photographs of different periods, images, drawings and sketches of his works, the artist's ceramic panels, objects in the ceramic workshop, as well as diplomas, awards, events programs, exhibition invitations, news clippings published in various newspapers and magazines, and interviews with him.

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About the Artists

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"Before the academy, I started with fine painting at primary school with the encouragement of my father. I am from Bursa. I graduated from Bursa Boys High School. I came to Istanbul for the academy exams in 1953 to be a painter. Meanwhile, there were no people who went to the academy yet. I won the painting department. I worked at Halil Dikmen Atelier for the first year and then at Cemal Tollu Atelier.

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After graduating from the academy, I entered the Gorbon Ceramic Factory in 1959. Gorbon Seramik was newly established in Levent. I was a painter, but I was working in a ceramics factory. After working there for two years, I went to the army. I did my military service as a reserve officer. During my military service, I was first an engineer, then I was assigned to Mersin from Edirne. I taught painting at a military school in Mersin for a year. In other words, I finished my military service by doing my own profession.

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I spent two or three years with theater, then I entered a private school as an art teacher. After working at that school for five years, I established my workshop in Ümraniye, which was later expropriated. There I started ceramics with the enthusiasm of Gorbon... Just like the actor who swallowed the stage dust, I also swallowed the mud dust in Gorbon. ​

I make sure that my works are personal. What I mean here is not my actual personality, which I maintain in everyday life, but the personality in my creative infinity. I attach great importance to the reflection of this personality in my works. I also want the physical character of the material, namely ceramics, to be integrated with the forms of my works. This depends on the very good assimilation of the essence of the substance. I create my works in an abstract expressionist style. I can say that I am fond of geometric forms.

I satisfy my desire to make multi-colored works on the board. That's why I went completely colorless in art. Actually, black is a color and white is a color. There are also the effects of the ceramic's own material in my works. These oxidized places are not considered colors, but I give the soil its own flavour in itself. My work continues like this, it seems to me that I will."*

-İlgi Adalan, 2001

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