Bock, Kiymet

Kymet Bock was born in 1958 in the town of Ercis, East Turkey with Kurdish parents. She was trained to be a school teacher but could not finish her studies due to a life changing polio infection. In 1987 she met the German artist Karlheinz Bock who visited the area, and went to live with him in Hamburg. Her grandmother was a well-known carpet weaver, known for her colorful compositions. Kymet started drawing in 1990, with daily visits to a workshop for the handicapped. She primarily works with crayons on paper and her delicate and fanciful oeuvre shows roots of her Kurdisch background as well as some influences from modern artists like Paul Klee. She was awarded the Grand Prix at the INSITA international Triennial for self-taught art, organised by the Slovak National Gallery.