Biography

Yurdaer KALAYCI was born in 1940 in Bolu. After finishing primary, secondary and high schools in Bolu, he received an undergraduate degree in economics and a master's degree in business administration from İstanbul University.

He completed his military service as a primary school teacher at Taşkale, a small village in Karaman.

In secondary and high school, he was a student of Mehmet YÜCETÜRK, Fethi KAYAALP and Nihat BEZZAZ. These teachers treated him as if he were a special student (in retrospect, Yurdaer thinks the level of instruction he received from them is comparable to that of an art academy today). In the same years, he also learned a lot of Osman Zeki ORAL and Orhan ERSOY.

When Yurdaer entered the university, Bedri Rahmi EYÜPOĞLU admitted him to attend his classes at the Academy of Art (Today's Mimar Sinan University) as a guest student.

In his university years, he sketched cartoons for magazines like Akbaba, Zübük, Amcabey and Pardon.

Having met with oil painting at the beginning of secondary school, the artist has never given up on painting and has kept working ever since.

While pursuing his military service at Taskale, he carved in stone a life size statue of Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK with its base.

After receiving his degree from İstanbul University, he worked as a manager until the end of 1973, when he returned to Bolu to start his own business.

In 1996, he opened Yurdaer Hotel Culinary Art Center, where he continues to paint. Yurdaer KALAYCI says he is proud to have been under the artistic influence of his teacher Mehmet YÜCETÜRK for many years. However, he tried hard to find his own style. Eventually realizing the infinite freedom on canvas, he did find his way.

For him, art is a tool by which one can seek answers to questions about existence, universe and the role of humankind in all. Even through he knows the difficulty of his endeavor and the impossibility of finding answers to these questions, he keeps on working, triggered by thoughts buzzing in his head like bees in a beehieve. He knows he is blind and his heart prays for all other blinds to be able to see one day, while his brain questions, his eyes and wrist work.