12.03.2025
With the exhibition Tradition and Modernity: Turkish Painting in the Arkas Collection (1920-1970), Arkas Art Center invites art lovers to explore the dynamic interplay between tradition and modernity in Turkish painting.
Arkas Art Center invites art enthusiasts on a journey through the modernization of Turkish painting with the exhibition Tradition and Modernity: Turkish Painting in the Arkas Collection (1920-1970), opening on March 26. Featuring over 110 works from the Arkas Collection, the exhibition explores how artists balanced modernization and local identity during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. Additionally, this exhibition serves as a preview for the selection from the upcoming Arkas Art Goztepe’s collection, which will continue in dialogue with the exhibition at the Arkas Art Center. Together, they will present the evolution of Turkish painting to art lovers through the Arkas Collection.
Modernization Through Landscape and Figure
This exhibition, covering the period from the early years of the Turkish Republic to the 1970s, explores how artists of the time contributed to the modernization process through landscape and figurative painting. Landscapes illustrate the transformation of the “sayfiye” culture – referring to depicting leisure activities, landscapes, and scenes of daily life in summer retreat areas in Ottoman art – from the Bosphorus and the Princes’ Islands to Ankara and Anatolia, while figurative works capture the emergence of the modern individual, lifestyles and urban development. The exhibition also sheds light on the impact of Turkish artists who studied in Paris after World War II on the New School of Paris and the changes in self-confidence within Turkish painting.
The exhibition gathers significant figures in Turkish painting, including the 1914 Generation artists like Ibrahim Calli, Nazmi Ziya, Hikmet Onat, and Namik Ismail, showcasing the impact of the training they received at Fernand Cormon’s atelier in Paris. It also emphasizes how the plein air painting tradition of Hoca Ali Riza and Halil Pasa shaped subsequent generations. Works by André Lhote, known as the mentor of the artists of the “D Group”, and by Hale Asaf from the Independent Painters and Sculptors Association are exhibited alongside those of Bedri Rahmi and Eren Eyuboglu, Cemal Tollu, Nurullah Berk and Hamit Gorele. The exhibition also showcases works by Fikret Mualla, Pierre Bonnard and Léopold Lévy.
Interpreting Turkish Painting Through the Arkas Collection
Curated by art historian and scholar Prof. Dr. Burcu Pelvanoglu, this exhibition moves beyond conventional art history narratives to demonstrate that the modernization of Turkish painting during the Early Republican and Constitutional periods was not a break but a continuous, interconnected process. Through a selection from the Arkas Collection, the exhibition highlights the influence of Impressionism, Late Cubism, and Art Déco in Turkish painting, encouraging a reevaluation of the relationship between tradition and modernity in Turkish art.
Tradition and Modernity: Turkish Painting in the Arkas Collection (1920-1970)
📍 Arkas Art Center: Fransa Sokak, Alsancak, 1380. Sk. No:1, Izmir
📅 March 26 – December 28, 2025
