30.01.1986- Marmara News Paper

Hrayr Kavukcu called our compatriot, who was making leather bags, made the portrait of our president Kenan Evrens' by leather, and delivered it to him. The president appreciated the artwork, and he sent a letter of appreciation via personal representation. He wishes good luck on Mr. Hrayr Kavukcus' future works. Mr. Hrayr Kavukcu is a specialist in this type of leatherwork and is making preparations for his upcoming exhibition with his artworks.

Our young artist Hrayr Kavukcu, who was made the portrait of president Kenan Evrens' only by using leather, was appraised personally by the president before. This time he made the portrait of the Patriarch of Turkey Armenians, Shnork Kalustians'.  Nowadays, the young artist is planning to present the portrait of Patriarch Shnork Kalustians' to him. As a gift for the 25th anniversary of the enthronement.

Hrayr Kavukcu, who was working on portraits with chiseled leather for a while, now successfully completed the portrait of the president of the united states of America, Ronald Reagen: This morning, our artist delivered the portrait to the Istanbul US Ambbasy, and he received high regards. 

The readers will remember that previously Hrayr Kavukcu was prepared the portraits of president Kenan Evren and the patriarch of turkey Armenians Shnork Kalustian with the same technique.

In the life of Istanbul Armenians, we often come across young people who have achieved great success: One of them is Hrayr Kavukcu.

 Although he is a woman bag master in his business life, he's preparing portraits from leather in recent years, which is encountered high appreciation by art lovers. 

Previously Hrayr Kavukcu was prepared the portrait of president Kenan Evren, for whom he received an appreciation letter from the general secretariat of the presidency. 

The artist was held in high regard by the patriarch by making a beautiful portrait of him on leather. 

This time Hrayr Kavukcu prepared the portrait of president Reagen in leather, which he delivered to the Istanbul American Ambbasy to send to the White House. 

We appreciate the work of the young artist and wish him luck in his feature works.

Our readers will remember that Istanbul Armenian young artist and painter Hrayr Kavukcu made the large portrait of Reagan and hand over to the Istanbul US Ambbasy to send it to Reagan. About this, they got enough information, and at the time, they published the picture of the portrait. 

We are happy to be informed that the American President has embraced this remarkable gift and conveyed his thanks and appreciation via personal representation to Hrayr Kavukcu by sending his personal congratulations and formal colored pictures of himself.

 One more time we congratulate the young artist and waiting for his new achievements.

Hrayr Kavukcu was making woman bags in his shop in Pangaltı. 5 years before, he "decided to change the use of leather". 

Upcoming this idea, he begins to make tables and portraits from leather. In his first leather artwork, Kavukcu dealt with the theme of Hacivat-Karagöz. Later on, he started to make portraits of statesmen. Among the works of Hrayr Kavukcu, who has created 36 artworks so far, there are portraits of Atatürk, head of state Kenan Evren, president Turgut Özal and Us president Ronald Reagen. He sent these portraits to Evren and Reagan, which he made in his workshop at Pangaltı, and he received appreciation letters from them. Hrayr Kavukcu stated that his first portrait work was the portrait of Kenan Evren and said the following about his work: "If our president Evren had not sent the letter of thanks after sending the portrait, I think I could not continue my work. It gave me courage. I think in Turkey and Europe there is no work such as this. Because I am having trouble finding colors, I usually use black leather and chiaroscuro to reveal portraits.

"I use a snap-blade knife as a brush," said Hrayr Kavukcu. From a young age, he meets with the leather world to make money. He started to apprentice with a bag maker, and one day he set up his shop as a bag master. Five years before, he changed the use of the leather with his friend's request for a Hacivat-Karagöz painting. It's his own words "relocate the leather ." Now he is making one more beautiful than the other paintings. The painting looked like charcoaly from the front view, with special care and creativity hidden in each painting. Hrayr Kavukcu did not receive academic training for his work every time he developed new techniques and created his works with his imagination. 

He explains "the replacement of the leather" story like this: "five years before, a friend of mine asked me for a Hacivat-Karagöz figure. Hacivat-Karagöz was like a silhouette in the picture which he showed me. We both did the Hacivat and Karagöz. Then I made one for myself. Later on, a camel and giraffe. I don't remember the rest. Suddenly, I found myself in this business. Now I have 37 pieces of artwork."

15 years artist who gets the appreciation letter from the former American president now continues his work for Bush 

Hrayr Kavukcu, who has been creating artworks from leather for five years, wants to state that he started this business by assessing the remnants of leather in the bag-making workshop at Pangaltı. 

On 16 November 1987, Kavukcu, who sent the portrait of Ragen as a perceptive of friendship, hung the letter of thanks written by President Reagen's hand on his wall. Just above the letter hangs the letter of our president, Kenan Evren. " Now it is time for the portrait of the new US President Bush. It took too much time and effort to make this artwork. Also, sending those artworks to US is highly costly for me. I would be happy If our government could help with this." said Hrayr Kavukcu. States that he believes that such cultural exchanges can strengthen ties between countries. 

The artist, who creates his works by cutting and pasting leather pieces one by one on the portraits he made with charcoal, wants to hold on an exhibition to represent his artworks. 

With pleasure, we informed you that an exhibition of decorative handmade leather products, as a first in Turkey, will be held by an Armenian artist Hrayr Kavukcu in French Cultural Center, at Taksim, on 24 Wednesday at 17:00. 

In advance, we wish good luck to the young artist, whose this exhibition will take a week.

The rare "art" exhibition will start in the French Cultural Centers exhibition space in Taksim for the first time in Turkey and Abroad. We are sure that these unprecedented artworks will receive with great interest and watched admiringly by artists and art lovers. Whos author is a talented Istanbul Armenian young artist called Hrayr Kavukcu. 

"Hrayr"... this is how he simply signs his artworks, which have been appreciated by notable personages. 

Hrayr was born in Istanbul in 1949. After completing Bezezyan School, he created extraordinary and progressive art by applying the painting to a material that has not yet been used before,. Leather. Without using other auxiliary materials and sources such as pencil, color, brush, etc, but just by using different leather colors, he gives colors, shapes, and spectrums he creates incredibly-authentic paintings.  

This was Hrayr's first exhibition, which is also the first in its field. In the 17th century, It was tried in one of the European countries for a while but disappeared before it was developed. Here now, a young Armenian is recreating that, tomorrow evening at 5 o'clock he is going to introduce his artworks to treaters and art lovers, just for three days, that means until Saturday evening. So on the first occasion, it must be seen because there is not much time.   When perpetrators of our country's Franch Cultural Centers saw Hrayr's creations, preferred them without specifying a contractual waiting period. They gave instructions to be included in the priority list in preparation, to initially hold an exhibition: Hrayr already finalized the preparations and will introduce them tomorrow on Wednesday evening with more than forty different artworks. Most of them are portraits of well-known people.

A memory from Hrayr Kavukcu's exhibition in Franch Cultural Center at Taksim: From left to right, the artist is with Varujan Koseyan: The middle, Hrayr with his wife, and on the corner, musician and "Kulis" magazine colleague Berc Chigaher, miniaturist and colleague from this newspaper Berc Erzian, literate Alis Jamgotsian-Deovletian and Literary-publicist Yervant Gobelian.

Last season, the leather artist Hrayr Kavukcu aroused great interest in the art community whit his unique and catchy exhibition at Franch Cultural Center in Taksim. 

The participants of Franch Culture admired the exhibition so much that they offered to must hold a new exhibit in the next season and determined to be set for February.  

Until now, we get informed that Hrayr Kavukcu is widening his collection day by day. In the last few months, he is already carrying into action the portrait of the President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), Alex Manukyan. It was prepared fully with leather and sent to the national benefactor, America, from where he received an appreciation letter, which contained words of encouragement. 

Until then, a couple of weeks before Hrayr successfully created the portrait of the Patriarch of Armenians of Turkey, Karekin Archbishop Kazancyan's, which was from his remarkable works. The artist has specious programs like he is planning to hold those solo exhibitions abroad, since foreigners, who are directly admiring his artworks while seeing, in a way they are trying to dictate to find a chance to show those artworks to the artist of abroad since they mentioned that these branches of art were tried a hundred years before and they become extinct, which is a very difficult and laborious craft.

On Monday, the Istanbul Armenian young and talented leather artist Hrayr Kavukcu received an invitation from the Harbiye Officers' Club and met with our President, Turgut Özal, at a predetermined time, receiving a private reception by the head of state, and he proffered the portrait that he made with his unique art. 

President Özal looked with great interest at his portrait, which was made uniquely and artistically, and received information about the application method and condition from Hrayr.  

The young artist spoke about his works and the exhibitions he made. Also, the people and topics he made with only leather, without using any foreign substance. The President of the Republic greatly appreciates Hrayr's artwork and asks, "how can I be helpful in this sort of unique art." Hrayr also expressed a desire to have the opportunity to open an exhibition in Ankara. Özal promised to take a personal interest in this issue and manage the duties and responsibilities as the first priority and fulfill the wish of this master of this unique art. 

President Özal, later on as an appreciation, presented one of his signed photos to Hrayr and wished him luck. We also heartily congratulate, once again, the valuable and original artist, who, as is well known, also prepared in advance, among others, the patriarch, President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), Alek Manukyan, and former the United States President Reagen's leather portraits and other beautiful paintings, motifs, and scenes.

As we reported on the day, the President of the Republic of Turkey, Turgut Özal received the known leather artist Hrayr Kavukcu in the officers' club at Harbiye and appreciated his leather portrait which was prepared by him. He signed his photo as an appreciation sign with a private caption, as we see in our picture.

Leather artist Hrayr Kavukcu, who, after the portraits of US Presidents Reagen and Bush, Presidents of Turkey Evren and Özal, President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), Alek Manukyan, also successfully made a portrait of Karekin Kazanjian with leather, he was received by our spiritual leader and handed over to him his artistic handiwork, and he was praised by the patriarch, in this regard, he also spoke about his work, which the Bishop promised to take an interest in his questions and try to be helpful to him.

The opening will take place on Saturday, May 30, 1992, at 5:00 pm in the Union meeting place. 

30 May-6 Jun open every day between 17:00-20:00, except on Sundays.  ​  

                                                     Cultural Committee of Getronagan Union

On Saturday evening, with the care of the Patriarch, the exhibition of the unique leather artist Hrayr Kavukcu was held in the Cultural Committee of Getronagan Union with the intense interest of art lovers.

The Patriarch was one of the warmest evaluators of the works of Hrayr, who gladly embrace to be a sponsor of the exhibition. The visitors watched the artworks with great interest and admiration. otherwise, the decoration of the objects which were placed in different corners of the hall was also noteworthy and shows how delicate and high-taste artist Hayr is.

On Saturday evening, with the care of the Patriarch, the exhibition of the unique leather artist Hrayr Kavukcu was held in the Cultural Committee of Getronagan Union with the intense interest of art lovers.

The Patriarch was one of the warmest evaluators of the works of Hrayr, who gladly embrace to be a sponsor of the exhibition. The visitors watched the artworks with great interest and admiration. otherwise, the decoration of the objects which were placed in different corners of the hall was also noteworthy and shows how delicate and high-taste artist Hayr is.

A new design in leather. Kavukcu has been making leather accessories since 1982, having used this valuable material in many different ways. He has been making a whole range of decorative products from portraits, pictures tables, and albums to table lambs. Also on display are a selection of handmade needlework in various applications.