History of Turkish sculpture

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Ataturk opens Ankara Museum of Fine Arts and Sculpture

Turkish sculpture refers to all works of three dimensional visual art or sculpture, originating from the geographical area of what is present day Turkey since the arrival of the Turks in the Middle Ages. Turkey also was the home of much significant sculpture produced by earlier civilizations. Turks have historically made sculptures for many different reasons. After Islam was accepted however, sculpture for any religious or worshiping purposes was not created due to it being prohibited in the religion. There was no such prohibitions on other forms of sculpture and sculptures of non religious figures, animals and plants can be found among the works of Seljuk art for example.

Seljuk Era

During the Seljuk era, Turkish sculpture was primarily dependent on architecture.

Early and Middle Ottoman Era

Early Ottoman sculpture focused primarily on monumentalism, simplicity, and both abstract and geometric forms. Until the 19th century the Ottomans largely stayed distant from sculpture, the most prominent examples being tombstones, landmarks and animal figures.

Ottoman Modernization Era

In the 19th century the pioneers of westernization in the Empire were the Sultans. This also included the area of sculpture. Sultan Abdulaziz had C.F. Fuller, a sculptor from a part of Europe outside of the Ottoman Empire, sculpt a statue of him on horseback and also animal sculptures too be put in the palace gardens, in 1871. In the same era Architecture in Beyoğlu, a district of Istanbul, contained reliefs of human figures. Inside there were also sculptures of human figures. The style was a reflection of contemporary European architecture. In 1882 an exhibition was opened in Beyoğlu featuring live sized wax sculptures of historical and prominent figures of the time.

Sculpture began to be accepted as a Turkish fine art in 1883 with the founding of the School of Fine Arts (Turkish: Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi Alisi) by Osman Hamdi Bey which was modeled around the Paris Ecole Nationale des Beaux –Arts. The popularity of sculpture was dwarfed by that of painting, but that started to change with the opening of the school. Yervant Osman Efendi, educated in Italy and France founded the department of sculpture of the school, the school followed the model of western arts institutions and was the only school that provided education in sculpture for many years even into the Republic era.

İhsan Özsoy was one of the first sculptors of Turkey. He was a student of Osman Efendi and followed the same style as his teacher. The government sent him to Paris where he participated in the Paris Exhibitions of Fine Arts in 1893-1894. He returned home in 1895 and started to teach sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy in 1908.

İsa Behzat, a student of Osman Efendi, and Mehmet Mahir Tomruk a student educated at the Munich Fine Arts Academy are among the sculptors who completed their artistic identity before the Republic. Around the same time Nijad Sirel also graduated from the Munich Academy.

Early Republic Era and "Official Art"

The Republic Era started with the proclamation of the republic. The republic gave way to a more modernized over all outlook in Turkey which had already started in the late Ottoman period. Among the first sculptors of the republic era are Ratip Aşir Acudoğlu, Ali Hadi Bara, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Nusret Suman, Yavuz Görey, Hüseyin Gezer, Şadi Çalık and Ilhan Koman. The modernization of the republic era is demonstrated by the rise of women artists such as Sabiha Bengütaş, Nermin Faruki, Zerrin Bölükbaşı and Lerzan Bengisu.

The Fine Arts Academy received new staff with a modern outlook on sculpture. Among them was German sculptor Rudolf Belling who was invited to Turkey, and became a teacher at the Fine Arts Academy in 1937. Belling had been banned from the Prussian Academy of Arts because his modern style was considered degenerate by the Nazi regime which had come to power in Germany around that time. He and his son, who was not safe in Germany due to his mother and Bellings first wife, being Jewish, emigrated to Istanbul.

Besides Belling, other sculptors where asked to create Ataturk monuments in Turkey. These included the Austrian sculptors Heinrich Krippel, Anton Hanak, the Italian Pietro Canonica, and the German Josef Thorak. They created many Ataturk monuments. Heinrich Krippels' works include the Monument of Victory in Ankara, Monument of Ataturk on Horseback in Samsun and the Monument of Victory in Afyon. Pietro Canonicas' work includes the Monument of Ataturk on Horseback in front of the Ankara Etnography Museum and the Monument of the Republic in Taksim Square, Istanbul. And the Monument of Trust by Anton Hanak and Josef Thorak. These monuments became a benchmark and standard for "official art" in Turkey and were a model followed by many later sculptors and their Ataturk monuments around the 70's.

Beginning of the Modern Era

Starting in 1948-1950, very early examples of more experimental forms of sculpture started to develop in Turkey. Straying away from "official art" the works of Ali Hadi Bara, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Nusret Suman, Şadi Çalık, and Ilhan Koman demonstrated the first examples of Abstract sculpture in Turkey.

Among them Hadi Bara and Zühtü Müridoğlu started to teach students with their new and fresh contemporary sculpture education in the early 50's. Graduates from their studios include Kuzgun Acar who had succes in experimenting with and creating sculptures with metal structures, Ali Teoman Germaner who looked into the connection between structure-from-meaning, Gürdal Duyar who used expressive forms and successfully captured the character of his subjects, Füsun Onur successful with her conceptual studies and Tamer Başoğlu with his abstract works. These graduates, the first generation of modern Republic Era sculptors still maintain influence today. From these graduates, Başoğlu, Duyar, and Germaner took Monumental sculpture beyond the area of the accepted "Official Art" for the first time.

Abstract sculpture

In the 60's and 70's there were sculptors interested in the challenges of form, structure and material. Şadi Çalik experimented with minimalist forms with different kinds of metals. A student of his, Mehmet Aksoy achieved an understanding of expressive figure in his large abstract sculptures from marble and rock. Sculptor Saim Bugay created abstract sculptures from random collected materials, mainly wood and metal. Sculptor Koray Aris experimenting with modern sculpture by experimenting with the human form and finding a meaning for it using leather and stout leather.

Post 1970

New in the 1970s with sculpture was the expansion of activities surrounding sculpture. Open air exhibitions, galleries and symposiums, including the Bienniale in Istanbul started to take place.

Other notable younger sculptors are Seyhun Topuz, Meric Hizal, Erdag Aksel, Ferit Ozsen, Nur Tarim, Salih Coskun, Cengiz Cekil, Rahmi Aksungur, Hayri Karay, Handan Bortucene, Isilar Kur, Server Demirtas, Metin Haseki, Hayri Koray, Yunus Tankus, Fatos Akagun, Mumtaz Isingor, Fusun Onur, Umit Ozturk, Nevzat Atalay, Aytac Marmara Kati, Vedat Somay, Ali Osman Avsar, Lale Cavuldur, Ziyatin Nuriev, Ertug Atli, Selma Gurbuz, Adem Yilmaz, Hakki Karayigitoglu, Tankut Oktem, Yavuz Gorey, Selma Gurbuz, Ayse Erkmen, Aydin Askan, Namik Denizhan, Gulsun Karamustafa, Huseyin Anka Ozkan, Ertug Atli, Ayla Aksungur, and Ferit Ozsen.

Sources

• "AN OVERVIEW OF TURKISH SCULPTURE". turkishculture.org. Turkish Cultural Foundation.

References

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