Hamit Gorele was born in 1903 in a small town on the coast of the Black Sea in Turkey, which was then still the Ottoman Empire. Coming from a modest family, Gorele finished high school in a city close to his hometown and went to study engineering in 1922 at his father’s behest. But after two years, he decided to focus on his true passion, enrolled at the Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul to study under the leading artists of the period.

Gorele was then sent to Paris on a state scholarship to practice under Andre Lhote and later at the Academie Moderne. Gorele returned to Turkey in 1930s and started teaching art in schools from the small villages to the cities. He received numerous awards from the Turkish governme...