Contemporary Art in Turkey

The ten artists, we are presenting here, belong to the Turkish delegation showing their art at the Salon 2006 at Carrousel du Louvre, Paris.

Artists Autonomous Zone in the Louvre Carrousel Salon 2006 Exhibition

by Frank Shifreen, New York. More about the author

The 2006 Salon exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts taking place at the Louvre celebrates the spirit of visual artists from all areas of the globe working and creating, all striving to express their visions, their cultures, and ideas. These artists, often independent, free of adherence to an elite, often decadent museum gallery system, deserve credit for perservering in their chosen craft. Visual art is an anomaly in today’s world. Making things by hand, searching for beauty or meaning, is both the most ancient and the most modern revolutionary act. This Salon exhibition of the work of hundreds of artists becomes an apotheosis of the human spirit that challenging the violence, nihilism, commercialization, and the repressive ideologies of our time. Yet as always, when nations, borders, international relations are concerned, the issues become complex and reach beyond the realm of art. Ideally art should stand on its own, free from intrigue or political considerations; however we are not only individuals, but also belong to groups, are citizens. We are citizens. Pierre Levy writes about how we identify ourselves, sex, name, age, address, occupation, and now email address. Each one is a critical identification that locates us in the world. Our personal and national stories are bound up and conjoined. The internet has changed social relations considerably, giving us an identity and location that goes beyond national borders and exists outside of real space. It allows us to engage in greater communication and access to each other that we have not had before. It also brings all of our problems and issues into the foreground, onto the world stage, where we find ourselves participating in the grand historical narrative.

The personal stories of artists are intertwined in these dramas, the spectacle, as it were. The story of the Turkish delegation to this exhibition is instructive as to how art reflects these changes. What were once local concerns are now viewed globally, and are all connected now.

This is the story of the Turkish Delegation. Nurhilal Harsa, a Turkish artist from Izmir, a city on the southern Aegean coast started painting after a life crisis, and worked for years assiduoulsly, developing her craft. Her paintings have several themes, one of which is the role of women in her society and her experience of being a woman. She exposes her soul by self portraits, raw, expressive, and unsparing. Her work is a feminist statement, yet speaks to me of the harsh light that all of us see when we look in a mirror.

Ms.Harsa was looking to find venues for her work. Her young son, studying French, made contact with the director of the Societe Nationale des Ecole through the Internet. The director liked her work and recommended her to the S.N.B.A. After years of solo participation in their annual show, she was asked to form the Turkish Delegation. For the last two years she has been busy seeking and advising artists who then must be approved by the societe in order to be in the show.

Before the internet, this story would have been very unusual, now it is not uncommon. My dissertation is based on these changes in art access.

Through her hard work and persistence we can see the work of Turkish artists previously unknown to us.

The ten artists in the Turkish delegation, organized by Nurhilal Harsa, are a group accomplished, and professional. Most of the group are well known in their country. They generally work in modern idioms except for Korkut, who paints in the old master's style of oils, using layers, varnishes and realistic imagery. The content of his work is very powerful. His large paintings of the eyes of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern state of Turkey, are piercing and deeply moving to me. He includes a painting, one of the series that depicts him as a young army Officer. His paintings are both a homage and a warning to Turkey. By remembering the man, the intensity of his face and eyes, both proud and tragic, Turks must remember what he stood for. The story and vision of Ataturk resonated with me. I will explain why he is a particularly important historical figure not only for his nation but for others as well. Personal images become political in the context of historical events

At the end of the First World War, Turkey, the center of the Ottoman Empire, lay in ruins. The Empire collapsed under the weight of the past, the assault of modernity, the sultan's despotic rule, poor alliances, arcane and inept bureaucracy that was not able to adapt to the world changing around it. It is interesting to note that the Emperor was also the Sultan and Caliph. Not only was he political ruler but the spiritual ruler as well.

One of the main ambitions of Osama Ben Laden and the radical Islamicists is to restore the Sultanate and Caliphate. It is one of their primary principles. In contrast, Ataturk (also a Muslim of course) deposed the Sultan, ended the Caliphate, and brought Turkey into the modern world. He was in my view, one of the greatest political leaders of the 20th century. He was a soldier, and his strategic skill and leadership inspired his countrymen in war and peace . He fought all the western powers, anyone who tried to scavenge parts of Turkey in the chaos after World War 1. He used the political capital of his military successes to create the modern state of Turkey. He created a republic with free elections, emancipated women, instituted compulsary education, and built an industrial infrastructure. He could have taken power for his personal ends and aggrandizement, but instead created governmental structures to ensure the perpetuation of the democratic secular Turkish state and to ensure the growth of his country. When traveling in Turkey I saw his portrait everywhere. I had heard of him but knew nothing about him before my visit. Many Turks are now afraid that the secular state he founded is in danger from extremist elements. I might be accused of mysticism, but I believe that Ataturk had a vision of the future far ahead of his time. He knew the role that Turkey would have to play opposing totalitarian and reactionary tendencies in world history. It is a moderating force in the Muslim world now and has been since its founding. Turkey is also nation in flux. Only recently uprooted from it's medieval past. Turkey has struggled to maintain a democratic progressive society. Even though they have adopted western traditions and methods, technology and government, there are undercurrents from the past that remain. Turkey has long been disappointed by the dispiriting lack of support from the west. It is a nation that is critically important to our interest. It is a bastion, an island of humanism in a sea of religious and tribal conflicts. The role of Islam and its relationship to us has become a major topic of concern to the western world. Despite these conflicts, or possibly because of them, the arts in Turkey are maturing, even flourishing. It is an open society that straddles Europe and the Middle East, and partakes of both strains of culture. Arts thrive in times of stress, friction and change.

In the west there has been a seismic shift in our attitude of cultural superiority after Sept 11th. We watch anxiously as Islam confronts us and asserts itself. Turkey is no stranger to these problems either, being a secular state with strong Islamic foundations. The artists of the Turkish delegation, working in different media, are all making personal visual statements reflecting their experience. That is not to say that their work is directly political, but the context or their reality should inform our perception of their art. Each artist's work is not only interesting aesthetically, but also revealing of a discourse that we also have had to engage in for better or worse. We should look carefully at their work.

Akin Yildrim and Kemal Uludag are two sculptors in the delegation. Both have, in my view, surrealistic tendencies. Yildrim works in metal, primarily copper. His work is figurative and abstractions learning towards the fantastic, the romantic, even the macabre.

His pieces in the show, "Faces" and "The Horn" both have an ancient look that is very disconcerting. Their presence is reminiscent of artifacts from some lost middle eastern culture. They both are mysterious and darky magical objects that havelinks to mysticism and the unconscious.

Kemal Uludags work, in ceramic, seems liquid made solid. I am reminded of scientific nanosecond photographs of splashes or microstructures too small to be seen. They also have a figurative reference subsumed within a larger structure. Both sculptors reveal I theorize, the psychic clash of cultures that are part of their heritage. Surrealism surfaces when the unconscious rises though our protective ego structure. Change, stress, deep psychic yearnings can fuel these images, just as in dreams. The third sculptor, Selcuk Yilmaz, has done very interesting work in a variety of materials both abstract and figurative. His work is very sophisticated. It is both spiritual and mysterious.

One piece is the head of a horse classicly depicted that is very strange and evocative; It seems muzzled yet is suffused with suppressed power. It is a fetish. In describing his work he mentions the relation of the past to the future. His work is shamanic. I agree with him, they seem to be doorways, from the long ago to the far future. Perhaps because of the anxiety of the present he seeks to know what was and what will be.

Serder Leblebici, a painter, also has a surrealistic tendency. His paintings straddle many worlds.

They are abstractions. They are landscapes. They contain realistic imagery. They change as one looks at them. They reveal a postmodern sensibility. They are bizarre, but do not show it at first. They also live in dreamlike states, as some of the other artists work that I was just descibing. They say that Turkey is a land of many contradictions.

I think the four artists work just described are constructed of them. Semeh Kaplan, A.R.Dogan Hakan Esmer, and Saime Hakan Dönmezer are very talented painters. Their works do not have the angst shown by some of the other artists in the delegation. Semeh Kaplan shows handsome paintings of fish created with textures, textures that winds up looking like realism. They look oriental and well observed. A.R. Dogan paints landscapes and street scenes that warmly embrace the life of Turkey. They are light filled and joyous. They reveal another side of Turkish life. It is a culture of warmth and hospitality. Sensuaity and beauty are appreciated. To see things in this way requires a liberal state of mind, open eyes and an open heart Hakan Esmer creates really well structured abstractions. They are beautifully done. They evoke many possiblilites. They have figuration and space embedded in them. They are synthetic yet also seem observed and humanistic, recalling the way that Picasso and Braque did not totally obliterate the subject in the beginnings of cubism. They are also mysterious. They imply much more than they say.

Saime Hakan Dönmezer paints trees and leaves as pattern and fragment. The trees bisect the canvas. They become subjects standing outside of the landscape. If trees could speak, what would they say? I grow, I live, I am, I stand.

The Turkish delegation will have one of the strongest sections in this entire show. In the past many of the contributing members have played it safe, content to send pretty works that will not offend, ask questions or jar sensibilities. A true work of art must be more than kitsch. It has to probe deeper than the surface. Beauty is important.But beauty without content or meaning is empty. We often accept a polite pleasantry rather than engage in honest conversation. All of the Turkish artists are fully engaged and their work stands in contrast to less risk-taking artists.

As for my impression of the entire exhibition there are critics that will decry this exhibition for the very reasons that I might find it fascinating. The one major criticism that may be leveled against such a show is the unevenness of the displayed work.

Often what is called great art nowadays is confused with fashion, fame or sensationalism. I go to many gallery or museum shows and I leave empty and bewildered. It is often called called "good art" because an expert said it was. Western cultures celebrate genius but not context, or contexualized experience. The struggle and methods of artists from around the world, whatever one might say about their work is fascinating and exciting to me. I remember a story a friend in the theater once told me about great American directors, actors and teachers, Harold Clurman and Stella Adler. They were passing by and walked into their little theater company, which was just starting their first production. The place was in complete disarray just before opening night. My friend and his company were disheartened and very apologetic to this couple, who were stars at the top of their game. When Clurman heard their abject shame, he shouted "What are you talking about? This is the theater!" In other words that just being there, taking the risk, was to participate in the great dialogue,in the great show. The couple pitched in and helped the young actors. I feel the same way about visual art. There are many excellent artists in this exhibition, perhaps many pedestrian or mediocre works, competing in a marketplace of ideas and imagination. These exhibitions are a bazaar, a confluence, creating a temporary autonomous zone as described by the countercultural philosopher Hakim Bey. The show takes place in a museum, but the works exhibited are outside the province of a traditional museum. They have not been sacralized or canonized. It is wonderful that this show is held at the Louvre. The show for me becomes is Situationist action. It brings artists outside the canon into the sacred precincts of the museum, unmediated by experts. The Situationists wanted to change consciousness by creating public spaces that could encourage dialogue, social interactivity, and freedom. This salon exhibition changes the social space of the museum. Opening up the doors, letting in the light. Artists working in solitude, without fame, struggling to keep themselves afloat, can stand up without shame.

Let your eyes be the judge. Without preconceptions, forethought or prejudgment.

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