Pioneering name of printing art: Süleyman Saim Tekcan

Tekcan, who was born on October 6, 1940 in Trabzon and passed away today, completed his bachelor's degree and proficiency in art education at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts after graduating from Ankara Gazi Education Institute, Department of Painting and Crafts, and blended his academic knowledge with his artistic production.

Süleyman Saim Tekcan starred in the films "The Flower Girl", "My Love and Gururum" and "My Dear Teacher" in 1965.

The artist left his mark in the history of cinema, especially with his character "Başar" in Metin Erksan's cult film "Time to Love".

He focused on academics and art studies

Tekcan, who focused on academic and artistic studies after his cinema experience, started working as a lecturer at Istanbul Atatürk Education Institute in 1968.

The master artist, who conducted research on printmaking in Germany, continued his studies at Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Fine Arts since 1975.

Tekcan, who served as the Dean of Mimar Sinan University's Faculty of Fine Arts, served as the founding dean of the fine arts faculties of Yeditepe and Işık universities.

"I rejected the movie offers"

Tekcan, who gave an interview to the AA correspondent on January 19, 2023, within the scope of the "Türkiye's Plane Trees" project, in which Anadolu Agency (AA) photographed the doyens, emphasized that cinema is a field that includes all arts, and said, "Time to Love is a festival where every frame is a picture. After starring in this movie, I received many offers, but I was either going to spend my life in the cinema or choose one of the branches in which I studied. If I had not received a good education, maybe "I was determined to be an academician and I rejected the film offers." made his assessment.

The artist, who also pioneered the establishment of Anatolian Fine Arts High Schools, stated that art should be started at a young age.

Defining art as a process learned in an atmosphere, Tekcan said, "If you cannot carry the things you learn in the art atmosphere to a dimension for yourself in the future, you cannot be an artist, you become a performer. In my opinion, an artist is a person who can be himself." He used the following expressions.

Emphasizing that he sees artistic production as an endless debt to his country, the master artist said, "You cannot become rich by saving money in the bank. Wealth is achieved by transferring culture. That is why I have always been preoccupied with this debt throughout my life. I see artistic production as a never-ending debt to my country." He shared his assessment.

Tekcan developed his technique

The method developed by Tekcan, the pioneer of the printing art, in the late 1970s and based on the principle of printing wet inks on top of each other before they dry, entered the international literature as the "Tekcan Technique".

Tekcan, who created an international center for transferring the art of original printing to the future with the Istanbul Museum of Graphic Arts (IMOGA), used horse figures and Anatolian motifs in his works.

Tekcan, who was deemed worthy of the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Prize in 2022, in addition to numerous awards, will be buried in the Mahmut Şevket Pasha Family Cemetery after the funeral prayer to be performed at the Marmara University Faculty of Theology Mosque following the afternoon prayer tomorrow.