You may come across the name of Abidin Dino in numerous art galleries and museums around the world, in a poem, the lyrics of a song, or a book. He is not only one of the pioneers of modern Turkish painting, but produced masterful works in such disparate fields as caricature, sculpture, ceramics, cinema, and literature.

THE ‘D’ GROUP
Abidin Dino was born in Istanbul in 1913, and under the influence of his art loving family began drawing and painting at a young age. As a child he lived in Switzerland and France for several years, returning to Istanbul in 1925. He began his secondary education at Robert College, but left school to devote himself to painting, drawing and writing. His articles and cartoons were soon being published in newspapers and magazines, and in 1933 he and a group of other young innovative painters, including Cemal Tollu, Zeki Faik Izer, Zühtü Müridoglu and Nurullah Berk, founded the D Group, which held several exhibitions of their work.