Ali Avni Çelebi

Ali Avni Çelebi (1904-1993)

This artist was born in 1904. With his father’s encouragement, he went to the Sanay-i Nefise School where he became a student of Hikmet Onat and İbrahim Çallı. In 1922 he went to Munich and worked alongside Hans Hofman. For a while he kept on working with Hoffman, and then returned to Türkiye in 1927, when he started working as a painting tutor. By this time he had established the “Independent Painters’ and Sculptors’ Association” (1927). After completing military service, Çelebi rejoined Hoffman again, returning to Türkiye in 1932 and becoming a tutor at Fine Arts Academy night classes. He later left there and joined the Istanbul University Faculty of Literature. When Leopold Levy started to work at the Fine Arts Academy in 1938, he returned and became his assistant. Later on he moved to Feyhaman Duran’s studio. Çelebi retired from the Fine Arts Academy in 1968 and died in 1993.