On 6 September, Hamburger Bahnhof will be showing the first comprehensive retrospective of the Turkish painter and opera singer Semiha Berksoy in Germany. Berksoy studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin in the 1930s and inspired the Berlin public. The exhibition spans more than six decades of artistic creation, focussing on painting and tracing Berksoy’s enduring connection to Berlin. It presents central themes of Berksoy’s work: his connection to his mother, the painter Fatma Saime, and to Turkish artists such as the poet Nazim Hikmet, the iconic roles in his work and the places and events that have shaped his career. With more than 80 paintings and works on paper, as well as numerous archival documents, films and sound recordings, the exhibition showcases Berksoy’s significant influence on the cultural landscape in Turkey and beyond.
Image above: Semiha Berksoy, Portrait © Courtesy der Nachlass Semiha Berksoy und GALERIST
After Semiha Berksoy (1910-2004) had great success at the opera in Turkey in the early 1930s, she received a scholarship from the Turkish government and studied at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin from 1936 to 1939. In 1939, she played the leading role of Ariadne auf Naxos, which was performed for the 75th anniversary of Richard Strauss’ birth.
It was performed by the Hochschule on Richard Strauss’ 75th birthday. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she returned to Turkey. There, together with the German actor and director Carl Ebert, she supported the founding of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet and the Ankara State Conservatory.
She remained active as an opera singer into old age and was still singing the aria of Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at New York’s Lincoln Centre in 2000. Her connections to Berlin remained constant: in 1969, the Haus am Lützowplatz exhibited her paintings.
She was exhibited in group exhibitions such as ‘Contemporary Art from Istanbul’ (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 1998) and ‘Istanbul Next Wave’ (Gropiusbau, 2010). Berksoy’s paintings have been shown at international biennials, most recently this year with a portrait of her mother, the painter Fatma Saime, from 1965 at the 60th Venice Biennial.
Venice Biennale. The retrospective at Hamburger Bahnhof conveys the connection between opera and visual art in Berksoy’s work. The exhibition chapters are organised like opera vignettes, in which the figures in Berksoy’s paintings meet the visitors like characters on a stage. They are presented together with rare sound and video recordings from the 1930s to the 2000s.
WHEN?
Opening: Thursday, 5 December 2024, 7 pm
6 December 2024 – 11 May 2025
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Saturday + Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE?
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart
Invalidenstraße 50/51
10557 Berlin-Mitte
