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BIOGRAPHY
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    I went with Sevim. The professor was waiting for me in his studio with a number of students still in their places. I put the two paintings "Nu-11" and "N-12" He approached, he stopped and then walked back a few paces. The same procedure, without a word, was repeated, again and again, for a period of about fifteen minutes. He broke the silence saying, "My friends, I would like you to meet a painter of genius. His name is Nezir Korkmaz. He is neither student nor teacher in our academy. He comes from Tatvan, is self-taught and his work is irreproachable. Take a close look at "Nu-11", I've never seen anything like it in all hisroir of the art..."

With Prof. Devrim ERBIL
(at my exhibition in Istanbul-1977)
   I was overjoyed to hear these words of praise and not insensitive to the irony of the situation, for this was one of the key members of the commission which had refused me entry to the academy.
   I took out a copy of a volume of reproductions of my works in black and white and poems selected from my notebooks entitled "GOREN KORLER-1" which I had had published privately at an expense far in excess of my means and offered it to him as a sign of gratitude. It was in fact the only tangible sign of gratitude that I was in a position to offer. I had made them to sell, but sold only two in two years!

My book
(Poetry)

Caldiran street-Ist.
     Professor Devrim ERBIL and I became close friends. My first etchings were printed at the press in his home. He also organized my first exhibition in Istanbul in February, 1977. He wanted to organize an exhibition in Europe with thirty or forty paintings, but I was not yet ready.
    When he became interim president of the National Museum of Contemporary Arts, he proposed to buy my pictures for the museum. The sum permitted for the works of a living painter, however, were so modest that I preferred taking the compliment instead of making the sale.