Nil Yalter

Nil Yalter
Born 1938
Cairo, Egypt
Nationality Turkish
Alma mater Rutgers University Institute for Women and Art
Known for contemporary feminist artist
Movement French counterculture and revolutionary movements

Nil Yalter (born 1938) is a Turkish contemporary feminist artist. She attended Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey and currently lives and works in Paris. Her work, which is included in many collections and museums, includes not only drawings and photographs, but also videos and performance art.[1]

Early life

Nil Yalter was born in 1938 in Cairo, Egypt. She is of Turkish descent. She received her education from Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey.[1]

Early career

Yalter took part in the French counterculture and revolutionary movements in the late 1960s. Her artwork focused on gender and the conditions faced by Turkish migrant workers. In the 1970s, she led the beginning of the French art feminist movement.[1] In 1973, Yalter made a piece of art on Turkish immigrants about nomads living around Niğde, called A Nomad’s Tent: A Study of Private, Public, and Feminine Spaces.[1] Yalter was involved in the feminist art movement. She made art focused on women and identity. In 1974, she created a video titled The Headless Woman (Belly Dance). The piece shows only the belly of a woman who writes a poem on her abdomen and then belly dances. This piece expresses the idea that women who are thought of as exotic, like belly dancers, are objectified. They are sexualized by focusing on simply one part of their bodies. This piece stands out in French contemporary art history and is one of the early feminist-art classics.[2] For WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Yalter created a piece with Judy Blum and Nicole Croiset in a women’s prison sometime in the 1960s or 1970s.[3] Yalter was a member of Collectif Femmes/Art, which was a group of female artists in Paris from 1976 to 1980. In 1978, she worked on a piece of performance art, “Day of Actions,” which explored confinement.[1] She acted out everyday life in a harem with furniture and utensils.[1] From 1980 to 1995, Yalter acted as an associate at Sorbonne University.[4]

Later career

Yalter has lived and worked in Paris, France since 1965[1] making drawings, photographs, videos, and performance art. She created a video focusing on shamanism in 2009 titled “Lord Byron Meets the Shaman Woman.”[1] The Tate Modern, İstanbul Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Fonds national d'art contemporain hold her sculptures, videos, and installations in their permanent collections.[1]

Collections

Her works are in the following collections:[4]

Art fairs

Her work has been shown at:[4]

Solo exhibitions

Her work has been shown in 2014 at:[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Nil Yalter". The Fertile Crescent. Rutgers University Institute for Women and Art. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  2. Ersen, Leyla. "Criticism of Orientalism by Contemporary Turkish Feminist Artists; Nil Yalter, Aakran Moral and Galsan Karamustafa". academia.edu. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  3. "WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution" (PDF). moca.org. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Tezkan, Melis. "Biography". Nil Yalter. Retrieved 28 October 2014.


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