"Even though she was praised throughout her life and became the subject of the articles of leading Turkish and European critics, it is still challenging to decide where she belongs to or where to place her in the history of art. The European writers, who are in the habit of evaluating an artist of Eastern origin mostly with "orientalist" or "political" approaches, are a little bit confused by seeing her "humanistic" and "apolitical" attitude by not resorting to "orientalism" despite her pure "oriental" identity. They fail to classify her. The same approach can be monitored in the Turkish art circles yet in a different way. Her "European" attitude, her distancing herself from discussions on art and ideologies in Turkey and her neutral stance prevented her from being considered as 'one of us'. In a way her image as a magnificent, noble, distinguished and impressive artist made her an "outsider" standing media vidae.

She is a remarkable global artist waiting to be read again in the history of art within the context of "globalization" fact which was seeded in 1950's, theorized in 1970's and pronounced towards 2000."

- Excerpt from 'An Artist and an Explorer Beyond Ideologies in a Globalized World' by Zeynep Yasa Yaman
The Centenary of Fahrelnissa, Exhibition Catalog, Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation, 2002