FRONTLINESFROM THE ARCHIVE

FIRUZAN BELIK IN THE KILIM VANGUARD

PETER DAVIES

Turkish kilims will be high on the exhibition agenda during the Istanbul ICOC in April 2007. A good time then to recall the first ever public exhibition of Anatolian kilims, which took place exactly half a century ago at the German Lycée in Galata. This pioneering event was due to the vision of a remarkable woman, Firuzan Belik.

IT IS AMAZING HOW A CHANCE comment can suddenly cause long held convictions to evaporate. Such was the case in a recent dinner conversation I had with Murat Belik, a Turkish friend and business associate, in Bodrum, Turkey. In the middle of a digression about Anatolian kilims, he suddenly volunteered that “while he was " in his mother’' s stomach" ”, she was busily organising an exhibition of Anatolian kilims in Istanbul. Murat was born to Firuzan and Muzaffer Belik on 28 June 1957. ‘The Anatolian Kilim Exhibition’ of 1957 predated, as far as I can determine, any such exhibition in the United States and probably in Europe as well. I had always assumed that the Turkish public and its cultural institutions had inexplicably lagged far behind the West in

appreciating the extraordinary kilim weaving accomplishment of Anatolia’' s nomadic and peasant populations. In the 1970s, when I first began buying kilims in quantity for my gallery, the older rug dealers in Istanbul’' s Grand Bazaar would ask: “When are you going to become serious and buy rugs and carpets instead of these kilims?”" Following Murat’' s surprise revelation I resolved to meet Firuzan Hanım and learn what I could about her exhibition. Arriving at her apartment in the Cihangir district of Istanbul, I found a very dignified lady, simple in her tastes, and very forthright in her manner. With the very kind help of Professor 􏰀􏰀 􏰀􏰀 􏰀􏰀 􏰀􏰀 Sükrü Yarcan,

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