Firuz Aşkın was born and raised in
Istanbul, Turkey. His father was a cartography officer and his mother studied
at the art school. He graduated from İstanbul Kabataş High School. After his senior high school graduation he studied at Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University) for a while. Since he did not get an education in classical painting there as
he had expected he decided to quit. During and after art school he had begun
his professional career as a caricaturist and cartoonist. While working for
turkish newspapers and magazines his focus later moved to caligraphy, and from caligraphy
to illustration. By doing all kinds of drawings and paintings he gathered
experience and knowledge and was in demand for book cover illustrations as well
as for film posters.
In 1960 he and his family moved to
Munich, Germany. First he worked with well known illustrator Theo Bleser.
Eventually he became a freelance illustrator on his own and was hired by
magazines, advertisment agencies and publishing houses. Thus he painted
hundreds of posters, illustrations and drawings. His work’s motifs show a large
range: from ships to nudes to grilled chicken to heavy machinery. Whatever is
commissioned by his clients is realized by Aşkın with the same care and joy. He
is able to make use of any technique which is best suited for a work: For
example pencil, aquarell or oil. The latter one being his favorite medium.
For two of his larger scale
projects Aşkın is also doing research work: “Turkey’s salt and sweet water
fishes” and “The ships of the Dardanelles/Gallipoli – 1914-18″.
Before coming
to Germany he was married to Güner Deger and has two sons.