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Turkey pays homage to 'ceramicist for the people'

The "Fureya Koral Retrospective" in Istanbul shows how a pioneering artist reinterpreted ceramics, a traditional Turkish craft, to create murals in the new republic.
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“I want to make china plates that will be used at the houses of the poor … and coffee cups for traditional coffeehouses. I want what I make to be [everywhere], in houses rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, in old and young hands.” So said Fureya Koral, often called Turkey’s first female ceramicist, in an interview with Milliyet Sanat in 1993, four years before her death. “Art should not be imprisoned in museums. That would kill it.”

Although these words became the signature of the aristocrat who wanted to make ceramics for the poor, her wish went unfulfilled. Fureya’s work — tiles, plates, ceramic-framed mirrors and ceramic-top tables — have essentially remained collector’s items. In 1973, she collaborated with the Istanbul Porcelain Factory to launch a tableware set signed “Fureya,” as she was called on the art scene, but the line was discontinued within a year after a limited production run. The factory was never able to produce the creamy white the artist demanded. 

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