ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born a Russian in Korea, raised in Japan and Turkey, and a New Yorker for the past fifty years, Zetun Jebor belongs to a family of Turkic Muslim refugees from the Russian Revolution. In Japan, she grew up speaking Turkic and Russian at home, Japanese in the street, studying English and French in her Canadian convent school and taking Italian and German to better understand her music lessons. At home it was Islam, outside it was Buddhist and Shinto, at school it was Christian, with Jewish and Hindu friends to complete the picture.
In her youth, it was discovered Zetun had a sixth sense. She would often reveal to others what they were thinking. She could sense the approach of an earthquake several minutes in advance, and, clutching her prized violin, would rush to open the doors, calling to her mother to follow her outdoors.
A music prodigy, she studied piano in addition to violin, and at seventeen she was performing recitals over Radio Kobe. But her foremost passion was painting, and she painted every day, creating a collection that she exhibited on the walls of the apartment she shared with her mother.
Zetun Jebor’s professional debut as a painter took place rather unexpectedly. One of her violin pupils happened to be the wife of prominent sculptor, Hideo Shintani. He was so impressed with Zetun’s paintings he decided to let her hold a solo exhibition in his place at the Shinko-Shokai gallery. His introduction to her show read: “Her style of painting is personal, exceedingly humanistic, expressed through fresh colour, and mostly inspired by classical literature… Truly like the musician that she is, she composes some of her works in an inspired, direct manner, expressing herself with a free imagination… Here are some interesting works, which leave a lasting impression.”
All the major newspapers of the Kobe-Osaka area carried photographs and articles on the event, many of the works sold, and valuable acquaintances were made. The following year Zetun was accorded a solo exhibition at the Osaka Municipal Gallery, sponsored by the Sakura Artist’s Materials Company, which added two of her works to its own distinguished collection.
In 1956 The Turkish government had given citizenship to members of their ethnic group in Japan so Zetun and her mother moved to Istanbul.
Zetun’s scope of inspiration now included the customs, folklore and scenery of this fascinating new homeland and she held solo exhibitions in Istanbul and Ankara, receiving attention from the press and amassing friends and patrons. However by the 1960s, her health deteriorated and she needed a heart operation. Some of her relatives moved on to the US, and she and her mother joined them in 1966.
After recovering from surgery, Zetun Jebor started painting seriously again. At first she was inspired by the teeming, cosmopolitan life of New York where she and her mother settled. She found it fascinating to be surrounded by a variety of races, creeds and cultures once again. She had exhibitions in New York City and Paris. Critics were lavish in their praise. Aude Francois of “France-Amerique” wrote: “Fated to find herself in the ‘trouble spots’ of the world at moments of historic crisis, Zetun Jebor derives her creative originality from the vicissitudes of her turbulent life as well as from her extraordinary temperament. The world-roving, cosmopolitan existence to which Zetun Jebor was destined has made her into a unique amalgam of all the cultures she has absorbed as her universal heritage.”
And V. Zavalishin of “Novoye Russkoye Slovo” enthused: “A show of extraordinary, unforgettable paintings by Zetun Jebor…. With rhythmic, vital forms, the prodigiously imaginative painter expresses every kind of human feeling and mood; some of her works seem to exude an aura of exorcism against the dangers and loneliness of city life…”
Thirsting for understanding of the world from her earliest years, Zetun learned all she could about the divergent cultures of her travels, and spent her solitary hours pondering the unifying points between them. Before long, the energy and rhythm of America began influencing her choice of themes. Her soul was sensitive to the metaphysical points of unity and harmony concealed beneath the exterior tension between races and nations, as reflected in her new environment.
She realized that, even during the earliest years, the spirit and the style of her work was suggestive of a deeper meaning. In time, she met scholars and professors of cultural history who analyzed her work and revealed insights that correspond exactly to her present understanding of it: That her imagination and creativity were being pressed into the mission of fostering universal humanity through her art, by showing us that all life is one.
Her process is not simply one of painting images; it is directly and literally recovering, from her conscious and subconscious, the true meaning and purpose of her vision. She began calling her mystic experiences “Cosmic Consciousness.” The art manifestation of this elevated mindfulness is the gift of Cosmic Painting®.
Zetun Jebor’s Cosmic Painting® is the visual artistic embodiment of the mystique of universal order and unity. All Life is One.