Upcoming exhibition of Antalya Culture and Arts titled as “Our Countryside: Selected Pieces from the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey Art Collection”, which studies the progress of plastic arts in Turkey based on a reading of landscape paintings, will be open from 28 March 2019 to28 July 2019. In collaboration with Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, the exhibition is curated by Prof. Dr. Burcu Pelvanoğlu and designed by Yeşim Demir.
One of the two branches that could said to have originated the tradition of painting in Turkey is the figure, while the other is the landscape. Interestingly enough, painting and the culture of countryside became part of our cultural life during the same period. Landscape painting evolved from the depiction of what is observed to adding feelings to what is seen, and the culture of countryside also went through a transformation. Alfresco cafés emerged in picnic areas, as did gardens in city centers and beaches. The culture of countryside constituted a sizeable portion of the history of social life.
This exhibition, which strives to depict the intellectual progress of landscape painting within Turkish painting in general, is divided into three sections. The first of these is entitled “From the Contemplation of Nature to the Countryside: The Bosphorus and the Princes’ Islands” in which illustrates radical changes occurred throughout the world in life styles, political ideas, and institutions; and also following urbanization and the need for new life styles in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, a new “countryside” life came into being along the Bosphorus and on the Princes’ Islands thanks to regular steam boat services that connected İstanbul to the suburbs; as a result, the Bosphorus and the Islands turned into popular countryside frequented by painters and writers.
The second section, which is entitled “Towards the Country / Landscapes and Countryside Scenes from Turkey” brings together the views of Ankara and Anatolia of which their numbers increased due to the move of capital from İstanbul to Ankara, the cultural policies of the Early Republican Era and especially the painters who sent to Anatolia by the government.
The third section, entitled “Various Approaches to the Landscape” consists of examples that show where landscape painting stands in abstract painting and contemporary art and offers the opportunity to see together the works of artists from a big variety of periods and schools; it also touches upon a variety of topics in the realm of social history such as the cultural policies of the Republic, liberalization, the growing art milieu in the after math of the Second World War, the Paris School, the Blue Anatolia trips and the effects of these trips on the history of thought in Turkey.
The exhibition, which will remain open between 28 March – 28 July 2019, can be visited every day except Monday from 11 AM to 7 PM and on Thursdays from 11 AM to 9 PM at Antalya Culture and Arts.
