Cihat Burak, born on August 8, 1915, in Istanbul, died in the same city on March 13, 1994. The artist, completed his secondary education at the Galatasaray High School, continued his education in the architecture department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts. The artist, completed his bachelor’s degree in 1943, started his first job at the general directorate of TEKEL (the Turkish tobacco and alcoholic beverages company) in Ankara. In 1952, he went to France via the United Nations scholarship. In 1965, he came back to his homeland. In those years, he both continued on his artworks and joined several significant projects as an architect. Cihat Burak gave examples from various lives belonged to those years in his indoor and outdoor works to be addressed to the social structure in that period. The artist interpreted pattern and space deformation distinctively that were managed consciously in his artworks by combining with a humorous narration. In his artworks, the traces of his power of imagination and the effect of his childish genuineness are seen. In his paintings dominated dark colours, he narrated the figures in a certain perspective composition by piling on the surface. He included a narration like a tale in every single part of his paintings. The artist mentioned subjects regarding social realism besides city life which had characteristics of popular culture. He used the line as a main narration of his paintings and captured a dynamic view with wiggly brush strokes. The contour line that he used in the figures provided independent patterns of each other to arise. The artist painted the figures in his paintings in order of their priorities and in accordance with the theme he worked. In addition, he used second dimension in his works. His paintings, traced with Turkish miniature art, gathered traditional and modern art together. In this study, qualitative data analysis was conducted and archival literature was held. Printed and electronic sources of various journals, books, articles and theses were used. As a result of the research, it was determined that the artist humorously transferred the social and cultural structure of the period he lived in to the canvas. 

Cihat Burak, social structure, picture