Earlier this week, I wrote about the temporary exhibition on at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, 1001 Faces of Orientalism, that should not be missed (it ends on August 11), but the Museum has just informed me that their ‘permanent’ exhibition that has been on since December 2011 will also end in two weeks’ time on July 28. This piece of news coincides with some other major news relating to the Museum – two days ago, the Museum's director Nazan Ölçer received the l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur.
If you haven’t already seen the While the Country is Changing: Turkish Painting from the Ottoman Reformation to the Republic, it is a very satisfying journey through the history and the ‘who’s who’ of Turkish painting from the period of the late Ottoman Empire to the modernisation process which took place to establish the New Republic. The paintings on display – from Sakıp Sabancı’s personal collection – give hints into the initial phase of the development process of the art of painting in Turkey and also reveal the transition in the production of images, as well as the changes that have occurred in the concepts of art and the ‘artist’ in the country. In perhaps the most crucial period in Turkey’s history, the way society was changing can been seen from the perspective of art, and more specifically, painting.
Hüseyin Zekai Paşa (1860-1919)
Still Life with Watermelon, undated
There are nearly 100 paintings on display from such notable artists as Osman Hamdi Bey, Halil Paşa, Abdülmecid Efendi, Izzet Ziya and Fikret Muallâ. The exhibition is displayed chronologically, tracing the artists, movements and styles that were popular or that gained prominence in that particular period.
The paintings in the first section, ‘Ottoman Palaces and Art: 1839–1876’, are heavily concerned with portraiture and still lifes of fruits and other food that were popular themes commissioned by sultans at the Ottoman courts. Osman Hamdi Bey, one of the most well-known and pioneering of all Turkish painters – and the man responsible for giving us the Istanbul Archaeology Museum – also features significantly in this section. His portrait ‘Naile Hanım’ (above) is being exhibited in Turkey for the first time. Using a background of golden gilding – popular for portraying the saints in Byzantine portraits – the painting emphasises the importance of Osman Hamdi Bey’s wife for him, and at the same time gives hints about women and the social structure of that era.
Also exhibited in Turkey for the first time is Halil Paşa’s ‘Madam X’ (above), which was awarded the Bronze Medal at the 1889 Paris Universal Fair, the same year in which it was painted.
Hüseyin Avni Lifij (1886-1927)
Landscape, undated
The next section focuses on the period just before the New Republic was formed. ‘The 1914 Generation’ features works by Hikmet Onat, Hüseyin Avni Lifij and Izzet Ziya, amongst others, and focuses on certain themes that were emerging during this period. The selection of the ‘The Nude’ paintings showcase Halil Paşa and Ibrahim Çallı’s sensitive and sensual takes on the art form that only came into prominence in the country after Turkish artists went abroad.
Fikret Muallâ (1903-1967)
Moda, undated
The theme of Turkish artists going abroad to study and develop their painting is further reiterated in the ‘Art Education’ section which focuses on the eccentric Fikret Muallâ Saygı, who left Turkey in the 1930s to study in France and ‘expressed his observations on [various] cities through an intense sense of colour, reflecting a melodramatic mood’.
The last section ‘The Independents’ brings attention to the group of artists who were taught by some of the aforementioned masters such as Hikmet Onat, Ibrahim Çallı and Feyhaman Duran, and formed the Independent Painters and Sculptors Association in 1929, the first society of its kind after the formation of the New Republic. A few works by these Independents are showcased including the ‘Taksim Meydanı (Taksim Square)’ painted by Nazmi Ziya Güran in 1935 (main image), which represents the standard of life that the establishment of the Republic brought and – notably – the freedom it provided for Turkish women. The softly coloured and focused painting is a far cry from the turbulent and sometimes bloody images of Taksim Square we have seen as part of the current resistance.
Mirrored inscription with gilded lettering, Celi sülüs script, 1286/1869-70
Mehmed Şefik (d. 1880)
While you are on the stunning premises of Sakıp Sabancı’s Museum grounds, you should definitely pop in to see the Arts of the Book and Calligraphy Collection, which opened at the renovated Atlı Köşk in May. Sakıp Sabancı Collection consists of more than 200 examples of illuminated Korans, prayer books, calligraphic compositions, albums, panels and illuminated official documents bearing the imperial cipher of the Ottoman sultans, as well as calligrapher’s tools, spanning a period from the 14th century to the 20th century.
Mezopotamya Dramaturjileri / Su, no. 5, Kufi script, 2009
Kutluğ Ataman (1961-)
There are two particularly interesting things about this exhibition. First is the inclusion of contemporary artists and their takes on the art of calligraphy – Ahmet Oran’s calligraphy exercises which he completed between 2005 and 2006 and renowned video artist Kutluğ Ataman’s video version of the calligraphic mirror compositions known as müsenna or aynalı both greet you when you enter. Second is a digital component that allows traditional visual arts to meet with modern technology. iPads are provided and when held up to an exhibit with a special symbol, they either display more information on that particular work (and allow the viewer to see the über-detailed calligraphic texts up close) or show an animated scene of an Ottoman calligrapher at work. This is both a more absorbing way and fun to see the exhibition, and really paves the way for other museums to use interactivity in their exhibitions.
And, while we are on the topic of not-to-be-missed exhibitions, there are a few that are ending soon (in Istanbul) that are well worth seeing. A selection of paintings and sculptures from pioneering contemporary Spanish artist Manolo Valdés can be seen at Pera Museum until July 21 (the Museum is also organising a special guided tour of the exhibition on July 17). The Trespassing Modernities exhibition at SALT Galata, which explores post-Stalinist Soviet architecture from a number of interesting perspectives, ends on August 11. The two exhibitions at ARTER showcasing some of the most powerful contemporary art in the city – Mat Collishaw’s Afterimage and Volkan Aslan’s Don't Forget to Remember – also both end on August 11. And, photographs and objects that will give glimpses into aspects of Robert College’s (the first Western school on Ottoman soil) educational, cultural, social and intellectual life will be on display at the Istanbul Research Institute until August 31.