Hrayr Kavukcu

Hrayr Kavukçu, was born on October 26, 1949, in Istanbul to an Armenian family. He was interested in various branches of art throughout his life. He says he got his interest in art and craft from his father, Artin Kavukcu. Although his father was one of the master chefs of the 1950s, he came to the fore with the sculptures which he made from fruits and derivatives.​ ​  

Hrayr Kavukcu, who started his education life at Bezezyan school, wanted to continue his career with music education after completing his high school education, and accordingly, he took solfeggio, piano, and accordion lessons from various teachers, including Okan Demir. In addition to his music education, he started to work in the workshop of a bag maker on holidays, in line with the importance, his family and especially his father gave to the craft.   

On March 4, 1976, he wrote his composition on the accordion, which is his first work in the field of art. This composition was approved and published by S.A.C.E.M (Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers of Music). Along with this, he became a member of the S.A.C.E.M community. He was shaken at a young age by the death of his father during this period when he started to sign his musical life and successes. With the responsibility of being the only child in the family, he turned to bag-making to support the family.​ ​   

The bag designs he made started to draw attention and he became a well-known name in this field in a short time. However, his sense of art and creation had not atrophied. “Everything is made of leather, why not a painting?” He started to create paintings from pieces of leather leftover with the idea of He broke new ground in Turkey and the world, and he made his first painting, Hacivat, and Karagöz, in 1984. Later, he began to paint portraits of statesmen and well-known people of the period. He made progress on a wide scale ranging from the presidents of the Turkish republic to the American president, from the Armenian patriarch to artists and musicians. He delivered the portraits to their owners and received thank-you letters from each of them. The interest and appreciation he received encouraged him on this path, and besides portraits, he also made landscape paintings, giving depth with dimensioning and light and shadow plays. Ara Güler, who heard about him from the press and visited the workshop, expressed his admiration for portrait works in particular. He opened his first exhibition at Istanbul Technical University in 1986. She continued her exhibitions in the following years.​ ​    

On the one hand, when the bag productions continued to intensify and the economic crises of the period began, the painting work was interrupted. The last time he painted a portrait of Olympic champion jockey Hugo Simon's horse was in 1997. He could not continue working in 2004 due to the health problems he experienced.   

There are 49 pieces of art and composition.