95. Today in 1920s Turkey. Cartoonist Portraits and Profiles: Ratip Tahir Bey
A recent 1920s Turkey post introduced a cartoon published in the popular magazine Akbaba depicting the seven artists employed by the magazine (see Cartoonist Portraits and Profiles: Introduction). This cartoon is the basis for a seven-part series examining each of the artists, their oeuvres, and lives. Moving from right to left we’ve already looked at Ramiz Bey, followed by İsmail Hakkı Bey. Today’s post considers the third artist, Ratip Tahir Bey.
Ratip Tahir was born in 1904 in Ottoman Istanbul. At the age of seventeen he graduated at the rank of Captain from Istanbul’s Naval Cadet Academy located on the island of Heybeliada. His background at the naval academy is reflected in the “uniform” and hat he is depicted wearing in the portrait above.
According to his Vikipedi page (Turkish Wikipedia) Ratip Tahir’s first cartoon was published in the satirical journal, Aydede in 1922. Since Vikipedi did not provide further details concerning his earliest work I set off to see if I could find this artist’s very first cartoon by searching each issue of the magazine from 1922. Aydede was published twice per week and included roughly 5–8 cartoons per issue. Reading through the digitized Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, I diligently checked each cartoon for his signature and finally, found his first gem in the 13 July 1922 issue. See below:
This rather cheeky cartoon entitled “Struggle” or Mücadele features an attractive woman caught between two male figures: a fatherly older man standing before her while sewing up her collar to conceal her skin and a young man seated behind her cutting a slit in her skirt with a giant pair of scissors to expose more skin. The cartoon bluntly illustrates the unwinnable plight of the modern woman who is expected to be both modest and alluring in her male-dominated society. The text below the cartoon voices the woman’s concerns: “One will open it, one will close it, even I am confused” (Biri açar, biri kapar, ben de şaşırdım!). The artist’s signature is located below the feet of the young man. His name, Ratip Tahir, also appears in plain text in the cartoon’s upper left corner.
In addition to Aydede, Ratip Tahir’s cartoons appeared with regularity in other magazines such as Akbaba, Zümrüd-ü Anka, and Karagöz between 1922 and 1925. In 1926 he was sent to Paris to study art for two years with the support of Prime Minister İsmet İnönü, who must have had a good sense of humor since a year earlier the same Ratip Tahir rendered him as a sultry woman in a cartoon published in Zümrüd-ü Anka… (see 76. The Cartoonist’s Armoury, Part 1 of 3, 16 April 1925). Zümrüd-ü Anka, the provocative magazine that published the cartoon, happened to shut down a week after that particular issue hit the newsstands.
In 1934 Ratip Tahir adopted the last name “Burak” in accordance with the Surname Law. In the second half of the 1930s through the 1940s he lived in Ankara and published cartoons for the newspaper Ulus. He also provided illustrations for popular historical serials, comic strips, and graphic novels. He returned to Istanbul in the 1950s and his cartoons were published in Hürriyet and Yeni Sabah. Famously, in 1956 his “Oldu da Bitti Maşallah” cartoon earned him a prison sentence of 16–18 months (depending on the source). Ironically, the cartoon was about censorship of the press, as it depicted a young boy labeled “Press” (Basın) crying while being circumcised by members of the administration.
Fortunately, he recovered from this setback, as he briefly served in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) in 1960 as a representative of Istanbul. He passed away in Istanbul on 28 October 1976.
Finally, as fate would have it, Today in 1920s Turkey has already examined numerous cartoons from this artist’s oeuvre. To get a better feel for his earliest works, I recommend browsing through the below links:
183. Bad Weather Attributed to God’s Wrath
89. Form Letters for Lovers (31 May 1923)
78. The Cartoonist’s Armoury, Part 3 of 3 (16 April 1925)
77. The Cartoonist’s Armoury, Part 2 of 3 (16 April 1925)
76. The Cartoonist’s Armoury, Part 1 of 3 (16 April 1925)
62. Istanbul’s Dance Problem (16 February 1924)
In addition to Vikipedi, Mizahhaber.blogspot.com, and trtarsiv.com the following valuable source was consulted:
Memiş, Şefik and İbrahim Yarış. “Ratip Tahir Burak.” In: İstanbul’un 100 Karikatüristi, 37–38. İstanbul: İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür A.Ş. Yayınları, 2010.
Originally published at https://steemit.com on June 29, 2017.
