THOSE WE HAVE LOST…

• Last February, Turkish ceramic art lost three valuable names one after another: Binay Kaya, Müçteba Kundul, and Zerrin Ersoy Bilir passed away, leaving behind voids that saddened their students and colleagues. Their memories will live on through the students they trained and their works.

BINAY KAYA: 60 YEARS WITH CERAMICS

Born in 1934, Binay Kaya began working with ceramics in 1961 at the Füreya Koral studio. After working with N. Bracewell in Scotland for a while in 1966, the artist returned to Istanbul and established her own studio in 1972. She produced various forms and panels with glazes she made herself at temperatures of 1250- 1260°C. Working with gre material, Kaya held her first exhibition in 1974 at the Melda Kaptana Art Gallery, followed by her second exhibition at the Hobi Art Gallery.

The artist, who turned to organic forms in her work, focused on crackle glazes in the 1980s. Her works from this period were exhibited at the Ayşe Takı Art Gallery in 1991. Until the 2000s, she produced her work in her own studio, and she has written a book to pass on her experiences to future generations. Her work is on display in the collection of the Eskişehir International Museum of Ceramic Arts.

MÜÇTEBA KUNDUL: TRAINED COUNTLESS STUDENTS

Müçteba Kundul, who dedicated his life to ceramics, made significant contributions to ceramic production and education with his nearly forty years of knowledge and experience gained both domestically and internationally. A graduate of the State Applied Fine Arts School, Kundul worked in ceramic factories for many years; he worked in the fields of product development and modeling.

In addition to his professional work, he taught at the Ceramics Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, training countless students. After his retirement, he continued to contribute to ceramics education at Sakarya and Çanakkale universities. He has a book titled "Methods of Shaping Plaster and Clay in Industrial Ceramics".

He was awarded the Ceramics Honorary Award in 2005.

ZERRIN ERSOY BILIR: ACADEMICIAN AND ARTIST

Ceramic artist and academician Zerrin Ersoy Bilir was born in Nevşehir in 1956. She received her art education at the Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Ceramics. After completing her master's degree at the same university, she taught at the Department of Ceramics for 28 years; she retired with the title of professor in 2009.

Throughout her artistic career, in addition to her solo exhibitions, she participated in dozens of national and international exhibitions, biennials, triennials, symposiums, and workshops. The artist's works have been exhibited in many countries, primarily Türkiye, but also including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Japan, Latvia, North Macedonia, Egypt, Germany, Poland, and the USA.