Since 2020, the center has been introducing selected masterpieces from the Arkas Collection to art enthusiasts in Urla’s calm environment; with its renewed selection, it now offers a comprehensive, multi-layered account of Western art’s transition from the 19th to the 20th century. Paintings, sculptures, wall tapestries, armor, and decorative arts are presented across a two-level exhibition space with historical and intellectual framework.
One of the key spots of the selection is formed by leading representatives of 19th-century academic art. The works of Jean Léon Gérôme and William-Adolphe Bourguerau highlight the era’s commitment to historical storytelling, flawless form, and technical virtuosity, demonstrating how art operated as a means of creating scenes and ideals.
With the Barbizon School painters, this academic idiom gives way to a more introspective approach rooted in nature and direct observation. The way Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Gustave Courbet engage with nature symbolizes the moment when landscape ceases to be a background and becomes a subject in itself. This shift is perceptible in the exhibition as a crucial turning point that prepared the conceptual foundations of modern art.
In sculpture, Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel approach the human body not merely as a formal construct but as an emotional and psychological field. Movement, tension, and inner intensity form a powerful language of expression in the works of these two artists, inviting the viewer into a sense of bodily empathy.
In the transition to modernism, Georges Braque and Francis Picabia radically question art’s notion of representation by fragmenting form and perception. Cubist and experimental approaches clearly reveal in the exhibition how moves away from traditional narrative and establish a new language of visual thought.
With this narrative, the sole work by Salvador Dali included in the selection forms a distinct and concentrated focal point. This work by Dali powerfully questions the concepts of the subconscious, time and reality through a single image.
Within this narrative, the sole work by Salvador Dali included in the selection creates a distinctive and intense focal point. Through a single image, Dali’s work powerfully interrogates the concepts of the subconscious, time, and reality.
The Renaissance tapestries on the upper floor, along with the collection of armor, helmets, and weapons dating to the 16th-17th centuries, remind us that art is shaped not only by aesthetics but also by power, representation, protection, and craftmanship. This narrative, constructed through textiles, metal and form makes visible the historical relationship between art, everyday life, and authority.
With this renewed selection, Arkas Art Urla invites viewers not only into the history of art, but also on an intellectual journey shaped between periods, ideas, and emotions.
Art lovers seeking to explore the various layers of art through an extensive selection of works are welcome to visit Arkas Art Urla on Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
