SSM unveils the story of a society’s transformation with paintings...

Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) showcases its extensive painting collection under the title “While a Country is Changing - Turkish Painting from the Ottoman Reformation to the Republic”.The collection, containing the works of the significant artists of Turkish Painting, such as Osman Hamdi Bey, Halil Paşa, Abdülmecid Efendi and İzzet Ziya, Fikret Muallâ will be exhibited permanently in the gallery designed exclusively for the exhibition. The exhibition, which has been carried out under the scientific consultancy of by Prof. Dr. Semra Germaner and Assoc. Prof. Ahu Antmen, will give the visitors a chance to oversee the historical journey of Turkish Painting.

The collection, created by additions to Sakıp Sabancı’s private collection in time, presents a wide spectrum to Turkish Painting art from a collector’s standpoint on the modernization process from the Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic. The paintings, that Sakıp Sabancı gathered through his personal interest for a certain era of Turkish Painting, gives a hint about the initial phase of the development process of the art of painting in Turkey. The exhibition also reveals the transition in the production of images and the alteration of the concepts of art and artist in Turkey.

Many remarkable works are presented to the art lovers in the exhibition, which contains nearly 100 paintings. Osman Hamdi Bey’s Naile Hanım portrait is among the paintings exhibited in Turkey for the first time; in addition to Halil Paşa’s Madam X, exhibited in the 1889 Paris Universal Fair and awarded with a Bronze Medal, which is presented with its award certificate, also for the first time. Standing out with its golden gilding in the background, used for portraying the saints in the Byzantine portraits, the Naile Hanım painting emphasizes the importance of women and Osman Hamdi Bey’s wife for him, at the same time giving hints about the social structure of the era. Taksim Meydanı, painted by Nazmi Ziya Güran represents the life standard that the Republic brought and notably, the freedom it provided for Turkish women.

The Director of SSM, Dr.Nazan Ölçer, giving information about the exhibition, stated: “We are presenting the story and development of Turkish Painting in a new spatial arrangement from the Reformation to the Republic. The paintings form a solid ground in order to comprehend the sense of art and different points of views in Turkish Painting with different perspectives and inclinations of modernism. With the new arrangement, as always, we are going to continue our education programs and workshops for students and young people, along with workshops for adults.”

The exhibition, along with its catalogue, reveals the social and economical transition of a country through the art of painting that these lands discovered belatedly but embraced rapidly. Throughout the year, conferences and documentary screenings will be held as to complement the historical binding. This way, SSM will proceed to carry out its mission that is addressing art’s conceptual and image-related dimensions with different perspectives and bring the Turkish public together with art.