Şefik Bursalı Müzesi

About Şefik Bursalı Müzesi

The Şefik Bursalı Museum is the former home and studio of the painter Şefik Bursalı, set on a quiet street in Çankaya's Güzeltepe neighbourhood. The artist donated almost all of his works, together with his studio house, to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the ministry arranged the house as a museum. It is run under the State Art and Sculpture Museum (Devlet Resim ve Heykel Müzesi) of the General Directorate of Fine Arts. Born in Bursa in 1903, Bursalı began exhibiting with the Turkish Painters' Union while still a student of İbrahim Çallı, Hikmet Onat, Feyhaman Duran, Namık İsmail and Avni Lifij. He later worked in art centres across Europe and taught at high schools in İzmir, Konya and İstanbul. Between 1934 and 1936 he became known for paintings of Seljuk and Mevlana themes made in Konya, and in 1937-1938, at Atatürk's wish, his works were shown in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Bucharest, Belgrade, Athens and Paris. He died in 1990. The works on display were chosen by the painter himself to cover every period of his career. Turkish Wikipedia puts the collection at around 70 paintings plus many photographs, and notes that one of the most striking pieces is a canvas left unfinished at his death. When the house was converted, it was fitted with the technical installations needed to show the paintings and refurnished, while the garden was kept with its original character and a bust of the artist was placed at the front. Practical notes: the Ministry of Education's out-of-school learning guide lists the museum as open Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00-17:00, closed on Mondays and daily between 12:00 and 13:00. Public transport running towards Çankaya along Ahmet Mithat Efendi Sokak reaches the house.