Jak İhmalyan

Jak İhmalyan (b. 1922, Istanbul; d. 1978, Moscow) developed his connection to art at a young age, influenced by his father, the painter Garbis Ihmalyan. After completing school in 1936, he enrolled at Lycée Saint-Joseph and later graduated from Haydarpaşa High School. His meeting with Abidin Dino in the same year further strengthened his interest in painting. In 1939, İhmalyan joined the Communist Party of Turkey and, in 1942, began studying in Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’s studio at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts. However, due to his political views, he was imprisoned for a total of three years in 1944 and 1946. In the following years, periods of exile and imprisonment took him from Istanbul to Beirut, then to Warsaw, China, and finally Moscow. In 1959, he settled in Beijing with his family and worked at a radio station broadcasting to Turkey. In 1961, he moved to the Soviet Union and, in 1963, became a faculty member at the Institute of Oriental Languages at Moscow State University, specialising in Turkology. In 1974, he became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists. He passed away in Moscow in 1978. İhmalyan's exhibitions were held in cities such as Moscow, Tartu, Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Ankara, and Istanbul. His works are part of significant museum, foundation, and private collections, including the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow; the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; the Orhan Kemal Museum, Istanbul; the Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Istanbul; and the National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan.