- Tankut Öktem
Professor Doctor Tankut Öktem (b. 1940 in
Konya - d.5 December 2007 inİstanbul ) was a Turkish sculptor famous inTurkey especially for his monumental works.He was born in Konya in 1940 and his childhood was spent moving from one location in Turkey to another following the successive assignments of his parents who were veterinaries employed within the state. By his teens, he was already recognized as a
child prodigy in sculpture and painting and he concentrated on the former discipline after his enrollment in the ceramics branch of İstanbul Fine Arts School. While at the third grade of the school, he received the first prize in a World Contest for Young Sculptors. He completed his education in Germany at "Porzellanfabrik Schönwald" in 1962. He became an assistant in 1965 and pursued an arts teacher's career in the same institution where he had done his studies and which became a faculty ofMarmara University in 1983.He made himself well-known in Turkey after the 1970s especially with monumental works which had
Atatürk or theTurkish War of Independence as theme and which are remarkable especially with their high number of figurines. In 1999, he was accorded the titleState Artist by the Turkish government.Professor Tankut Öktem died on 5 December 2007 in a
traffic accident in İstanbul.External links
* [http://www.indigodergisi.com/gizem_01_24.htm Tankut Öktem] "(Turkish)"
Persondata
NAME = Öktem, Tankut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Oktem, Tankut
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Turkish sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH = 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH =Konya ,Turkey
DATE OF DEATH =5 December ,2007
PLACE OF DEATH =Istanbul, Turkey
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