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The Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia, in Jalan Lembah Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, has launched an exhibition, “Tradition, Culture and Modernity: Contemporary Art from Turkey”. It’s a collaboration between the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey and, of course, the Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia.
Turkey’s most influential writer - Orhan Pamuk, had written thusly about artists (in his book about his city, Istanbul): “If you could have seen how thrilled Turkey’s most famous artist was that some people had finally turned up at his door to buy a painting, or what ridiculous airs he put on to hide his pleasure, or how he practically swept the floor with his bowing as we left with his painting in our hands, or how unctuously he bade us farewell, you wouldn’t wish becoming a painter on anyone in this country, my son.” Indeed how times have indeed changed.
The FT (Britain’s Financial Times), in November 2010, began an article (Turkey’s contemporary art scene) with… “Few doubt that Turkey’s contemporary art scene is one of the liveliest in the world. Galvanised by the Istanbul Biennial, which kicked off in 1987, the city has witnessed an explosion of commercial galleries…” While the New York times (February 2012) in “The Istanbul Art-Boom Bubble” mentioned “In New York it feels like the best years are behind us…in Istanbul it feels like the best years are yet to come.” Art Radar too (November 2014) delighted in the successes of Modern and Contemporary Turkish art and the continuing art fair aptly named - Art Istanbul. The article suggested that Istanbul might become an “art capital of the future”.
The phenomenal success of Turkish Modern and Contemporary art continues to be witnessed around the art world. Christie’s (The Art People) Dubai ended an October 2014 sale, totalling 12,510,875 (USD), of Modern & Contemporary Arab, Iranian & Turkish Art. There is yet more success as Sotheby’s currently holds the record for many of the Contemporary Turkish artists’ sales and, back in Christie’s, a work by Fahr El Nissa Zeid (Break of Atom and Vegetal Life,1962), sold for an impressive $2,300,000 in 2013 (Dubai).
Amidst all this interest in art from Turkey, it is no wonder that Kuala Lumpur’s Islamic Arts Museum decided to host the current exhibition - Tradition, Culture and Modernity: Contemporary Art from Turkey, from 2nd December (2014) until 31st January (2015). Its launch was an impressive affair, with many serious (mostly) men in equally serious dark jackets listening attentively to speeches in Turkish and English. As nourishment for the body, as much as the art works are to the soul, a mixture of Malaysia and Turkish food was available to stave off the pangs after all that speechifying.
This current exhibition is, without a doubt, a tour de force of art from Turkey. The central Bank of the Republic of Turkey has enabled those of us being in Malaysia to witness works by many of Turkey’s renown artists. Not to diminish any of the other artworks, nor any of the other artists, but the one work which struck my attention on entering the exhibition, was “Locus of Extremity” (1982) by Erol Akyavas. It is a large piece, some 265 x 178 cm, and its combination of green, turquoise and silver leaf poignantly capture all that is beautiful about Istanbul, if not Turkey. Neither the comprehensive catalogue, nor my pathetic iPad picture taking, could capture the sheer brilliance of this piece and its dominance over the entire show.
Akyavas had studied under Ferdinand Leger, in Paris, in the early 1950s, and yet in the exhibition shown at the Islamic Museum in KL, it is another Turkish artist - Adem Genç whose work more closely resembles Leger’s ‘Tubism’. Genc’s “Why are Things as They are” (2008) and “Why are Things as They are” (2009) have the distinctive Leger tonal tubes/machine-like aesthetic (marvellously depicted in the film La Ballet Mechanique, 1923-24) coupled with Genc’s brush abstraction in the background. The current exhibits range from a small ‘serigraph’ titled “Composition” (1965) by Sabri Bekel (40 x 70 cm) to the aforementioned “Locus of Extremity” (1982) by Erol Akyavas, and “Requiem for the Last Voices” also by Akyavas. The latter is a superb ‘mixed media’ on canvas.
One galleryist, who had spent a decade living in Istanbul, nudged me over to see the two works from Devrim Erbil. One, a large mixed media on canvas (180 x 160 cm) called “Istanbul Watching” (2008), the other (larger) was simply called “Abstraction” (180 x 180 cm). Erbil's works are often made into carpets, mosaics/ceramics, and he delights in producing the sketch-like images on larger surfaces, which reflect his home city, its birds and its mosques.
This exhibition presents a rare opportunity, do see this if you can.
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