The first seeds of ARTESS were scattered in an artist's small studio by dint of personal effort, with modest means, and despite the technological shortcomings that existed in Turkey during those years. In 1974 Süleyman Saim Tekcan set up the original print workshops of what was then known as Ataturk Education Institute and is today the Ataurk Education Faculty of Marmara University, and also inaugurated the school's educational program in this field. Imbued with the enthusiasm of a young person newly returned from abroad, he also laid the foundations of the first private original-print workshop in Turkey around the same time. In those years not a single item of equipment was locally available and it was all but impossible financially to import anything from abroad. So instead, models of original-print presses were designed and built from scratch, working hand in hand with craftsmen. Old presses that had been discarded as scrap and were lying in the warehouses of private and public printing-houses were sought out, repaired, and returned to use. With these means, the workshop went into production. In an endeavor that many thought would result in failure and others saw no future in anyhow, Süleyman Saim Tekcan was trying to create a number of formative processes. He believed that encouraging art and the culture of civilization and taking cultural education to the masses played a crucial role in a country's general development and he never strayed from the goals he set before himself out of that ideal. He recognized that, in this sense, original prints had a great part to play in making Turkish art more accessible and in making the fine arts a part of people's lives. He knew that the difficulty - especially the economic difficulties - of having access to many artists' works could be overcome through original prints. He believed that by means of original prints, artists would be able not only to increase their output quantitatively but that qualitatively they would also have been able to enjoy the flavor of a new artistic experience.

Time proved Süleyman Saim Tekcan to be justified in all his beliefs and expectations. Ever since its foundation, ARTESS has been the means whereby Turkey has gained many new artists of the original print as well as people who appreciate art.

In 1975, he undertook the task of establishing new print workshops at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, now known as Mimar Sinan University and of upgrading its existing ones. Around the same time he also relocated his own private workshop to Sogutlucesme, with the aim of sharing his technical means and knowledge with other artist friends and in order to develop and encourage opportunities for making original prints. In a very short time however, this ceased to be just a "workshop": it became a haven whose warm atmosphere encouraged artists to drop by and a common meeting place made lively with discussions about art.

For almost a decade thereafter, Turkey's leading artists became acquainted with original prints for the first time at Sogutlucesme under the earnest and patient tutelage of Süleyman Saim Tekcan. Nurullah Berk, Elif Naci, Cihat Burak, Veysel Eriistiin, Avni Arbas, Emin Bann, Neset Giinal, Mehmet Pesen, Nedim Gunsiir, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Semih Balcioglu, Turhan Selruk, Ali Teoman Germaner, Mehmet Guleryuz and many more artists enjoyed themselves as they produced and shared the opportunities that the Sogutlucesme studio offered them. Intellectuals such as Sahap Balcioglu, Bertan Onaran, and Malik Aksel were also on hand and enriched the act of producing with their eloquence and amiable contributions to art.

Meanwhile, Süleyman Saim Tekcan continued to work without letup, alone and in concert with others, pursuing a double career of artist and educator. During the same years he began expanding his artistic activities abroad, especially in the field of silkscreen prints. This is when he began producing the first examples of the innovative and original techniques that were to gain him international recognition as a master of the art.

The early 1980s were an important turning-point in the life of ARTESS. By now Süleyman Saim Tekcan had finally found the means to create the studio that he had dreamed of all his life and had been striving towards for years. Mobilizing all his strength, effort, and material and moral means and with the support of his family, all of whom shared the same priorities, goals, beliefs, and willingness for self-sacrifice as he did, the construction of a new studio building was completed in the fall of 1984. At last the "art house" was ready to put its new and more extensive means at the service of art circles. The new building was formally opened in October with the sincere congratulations of all friends of the arts. A lifetime goal that Süleyman Saim Tekcan had attached such great importance to thus turned into reality. Since then, artistic production has continued to flow from ARTESS. Located in its own building in Camlica, it has engraving and serigraphy workshops, an art gallery where prints executed in-house are continuously on display, a guest-house where foreign artists may be accommodated while working at the studio, a library of art books, work-rooms, and a frame shop. Continuing to grow in terms of the services it offers and its technological prowess, the studio constantly renews itself as it keeps abreast of changes in its field. At the same time, it remains the same warm, artistic venue for artists and art-lovers that it has always been.

ARTESS has become a home for art. It is a home that has been shaped by the efforts of many over a lifetime, where long-lasting beauty is created and accumulates, whose culture is absolutely lacking in artistic egoism, where art is shared in the sincerest sense of that word, where creation becomes richer and more fruitful the more its products are shared, and, the point which is perhaps what makes it so different, where the proceeds from art can be reinvested productively in yet more art. At this point we extend our respects on behalf of Turkish art to Professor Süleyman Saim Tekcan and to his wife, Emel, who shares all his life goals with her infinite self-sacrifice and support as well as to his artist friends who sustained them through hard times and good times alike by sharing their efforts and their encouragements so that they could achieve what they have done so far. We also recall with love and regret the dozens of esteemed artists who are no longer with us today but who live on and on in their works while also wishing our living friends good health and hearts filled art.

In the 21^st century, ARTESS will continue to build on the values that have so far accumulated within it one by one and it will extend its existing reach out into the world by means of new generations who have assumed responsibility for the mission of the precious people who produced all these beauties and who have brought us to where we are now. Above all, it will continue to adhere to the principle of durable productivity that has continued down through the years under every sort of condition, to its uncompromising attitude towards quality, and to its principle of unconditional and responsible service on behalf of art. One of the ideals that ARTESS has adopted as its own is to be a pioneering institution for Turkish art. As such, it will be spearheading the effort to establish a museum of contemporary original prints in Turkey, the core of whose collection will be not only the work that has been done so far but also the new work that will continue to be produced at an increasingly more international level. In closing, we offer our sincerest respect and love to all our art-lover and artist friends with whom we share communion in art.