The Life and Art Career of Süleyman Saim Tekcan

Born in Trabzon on October 6, 1940, the life, career, established workshops, and awards of Süleyman Saim Tekcan, a pioneer of Turkish art, education, and original printmaking, have been announced.

Süleyman Saim Tekcan was born in Trabzon on October 6, 1940. He received his undergraduate degree from the Ankara Gazi Education Institute, Department of Painting and Crafts in 1961. It was noted that in his cinema career, he tried acting in 1965, taking roles in the films “Çiçekçi Kız”, “Sevgim ve Gururum”, and “Sevgili Öğretmenim”, and is remembered for his role as Başar in Metin Erksan’s cult film “Sevmek Zamanı”.

Tekcan served as an educator at the Istanbul Atatürk Education Institute between 1968 and 1975, where he established the first printmaking, lithography, serigraphy, and engraving workshops. Instrumental in the realization of engraving and serigraphy workshops in institutions across Anatolia, the artist established and conducted original printmaking workshops at Istanbul Technical University between 1974 and 1975. Opening his first printmaking workshop in Kuyubaşı in 1974, Tekcan moved this workshop to Söğütlüçeşme in 1977 and began participating in international biennals and triennials. The “wet printing” technique he developed in the late 1970s began to be referred to in international literature as the “Tekcan technique”.

Becoming a professor at the Academy in 1985 and appointed as the Head of the Graphic Arts Department, Tekcan served as the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University between 1994 and 1995. Ensuring the establishment of Anatolian Fine Arts High Schools during the same years, the artist founded IMOGA in 2004, which houses one of the few original print collections in the world. Tekcan was deemed worthy of the Presidential Grand Award for Culture and Arts in 2022.