Osman Hamdi Bey

Osman Hamdi Bey (1842 - 1910) is well known in Turkey as the pioneer of Turkish painting.  He was also a bureaucrat and an archaeologist.  The Pera Museum hosts a special exhibit on him and two University of Pennsylvania archaeologists whose lives intersected in excavations at Assos in Turkey and Nippur in modern day Iraq.

 Osman Hamdi Bey was born in Gebze (not far from Istanbul)  and later sent to Paris to study law.  But his interests were soon focused on painting, which he did during his entire life.  Here is "A View From Gebze" completed in 1881.

As a bureaucrat, he had several jobs, one being the director of the Imperial Museum beginning in 1881.  During his tenure in this position, he oversaw the building of Istanbul's Archaeology Museum, established laws requiring all excavated artifacts to remain in Turkey, gave permission to foreigners to excavate and led excavations.  He is pictured here posing on one of the giant statue heads during his excavation at Nemrut in 1883.

 Two professors of the University of Pennsylvania, Haynes and Hilprecht, were among those granted permission to excavate in the Ottoman lands by Osman Hamdi Bey.  Haynes photographed the excavation at Assos, Turkey and was field director at Nippur, Iraq.  Hilprecht was director of the excavation at Nippur.  The University of Pennsylvania owns two paintings of Osman Hamdi Bey from this time period.  "At the Mosque Door" (1891) depicts men and women in period clothing.  Osman Hamdi Bey often used himself as a model for the figures in his painting.  He is several of the men in this painting.

 The painting is quite large as it hangs next to "The Fountain of Life" (1904).

Closeup detail from "The Fountain of Life".

 The University of Pennsylvania commissioned a painting of the Sumerian site at Nippur, "The Excavation at the Temple Court in Nippur" (1903).  Hilprecht is painted into the picture in the lower right looking at the pottery.

 I and others appreciate the paintings from Pennsylvania loaned for this exhibit.  They speak well of the cooperation between Osman Hamdi Bey and the professors of archaeological work.  And seeing them here in Istanbul saved me a trip down the PA turnpike extension!

Osman Hamdi Bey's most famous painting, known to all modern day Turks, is "The Tortoise Trainer" (1906) and here again, he used himself as the model for the main figure - the human one, that is.   This painting has it's permanent home in the Pera Museum.  

This exhibit continues at the Pera Museum until January 8, 2012.

Frida and Diego

Newly opened at the Pera Museum is an exhibit of paintings by the Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The pieces on exhibit are part of the Gelman collection. The Gelman's lived in Mexico for a number of years, were art collectors, and became friends with Frida and Diego. The majority of their life collection was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a smaller portion to the Mexican National Cultural Heritage. On display are pieces donated to Mexico. The Gelmans knew and admired Diego and when Mrs. Gelman was introduced to Frida and saw this self portrait with Diego on her mind, she purchased it immediately, and became an instant admirer of Frida and her work.
Diego is most famous for his mural work, none of which from this collection left Mexico. There were some large canvases, including "Calla Lily Vendors".
Both Frida and Diego were commissioned to paint portraits of Natasha Gelman in 1943. Frida portrait is small and very precise. The fur collar looked soft to the touch, which of course, I didn't. Diego's canvas was large, with the full body painted and calla lilies in the background. Here is a closeup of just the face. Both paintings were lovely and drew your eyes to them.
"Girl with Gloves" is a watercolor done by Diego with lots of character.

This is the first time Frida and Diego have been exhibited in Turkey and a special treat for all of us living in Istanbul at this time. Many Spanish speaking visitors were at the museum as well as a large group of students from one of the universities with a robust art program. The exhibit continues until March 20, 2011.

Csontvary, Hungarian artist

Pecs, Hungary and Istanbul share the title of 2010 Capital of Culture. There have been many exchanges between museums of Europe and the museums of Istanbul. Currently, work of Hungarian artist Csontvary is on loan from the Pecs Museum to Istanbul's Pera Museum. Csontvary was born in 1853, educated as a pharmacist and at the age of 41, decided to pursue art. He travelled around Europe and the Middle East for lessons and then painting in oils. His self portrait is used in the exhibit announcement on the front of the museum.

My favorite painting is titled " Roman Bridge in Mostar", painted in 1903. The painting description notes that the bridge was actually built by the Turks in the 16th century over the Neretva. Muslims lived on the left and Croatians on the right. The painting depicts the original bridge, which was destoyed in 1991 during the Yugoslavia war. Since then the bridge has been reconstructed with a Hungarian design and Turkish craftsmen.

Also at the Pera Museum, is an exhibit of "Scenes from Tsarist Russia", all from the late 19th century. During this period, many scenes of everyday life were painted.

Children were featured in Russian painting prior to becoming popular subjects in western painting. From 1897, Nikolai Bogdana-Belsky's "At the Doors of a School" depicts the plight of a boy from a poor family.

A Japanese Day

The weather cooled down for a day, so I was off for a Japanese themed day. New exhibits opened at the Pera Museum as part of the 2010 year of cultural exchange between Japan and Turkey. My first stop was at the Japanese Cultural Center to see what diversions they offered. The center is a small office, and language lessons the only offer. To study ikebana or oragami, you need to go to Japan... There is a nearby Japanese cafe, which looked to be a good lunch idea. I took no pictures of the center, but did take a couple of the church across the street, which had a prretty stained glass window. No signage in Turkish or English gave away the name or type of church.
At the Pera Museum, there was as exhibit by the Japanese artist Ikuo Hirayama, who passed away this past December at the age of 79. He was an accomplished Nihonga painter, painting in the old style, where natural color pigments were mixed with glue and applied to paper. This contrasts to the western world mixing the color pigments with oils, resulting in the oil painting standard. Hirayama's painting surfaces have a granular look when you get up close. This exhibit featured paintings inspired by his over 100 trips to locations along the Silk Road. The one shown below is of the Cappadocia area in Turkey. Hirayama's interest inthe Silk Road stems from his interest in the path Buddism took to arrive in Japan.

Hirayama also painted in water colors, with several of Turish people and locations in the exhibit. A painting of the Blue Mosque was reproduced on a elevator door of the museum

On two other floors of the museum, Japanese inventions as well as animation, manga and gaming classics. A film festival will run for the next month or so at the Pera Museum featuring animated movies. They will show two features, Spirited Away and Tokyo Godfathers, which I have already seen. For the others, I will keep note of the titles, as all will be shown in Japanese with Turkish subtitles.

After my museum visit, my intent was to head back to the Japanese cafe, but a new restaurant, SaladStation, pulled me in. Their logo looks similar to the one for the London Underground, so I do believe there may be a western connection to this franchise. You choose your salad base (mine arugula) and then choose your base toppings (5 included) and any additional toppings (went for the hard to find blue cheese) and a dressing - here I chose the wasabi dressing, to keep with my Japanese dressing.

The green kerchiefed salad chefs mix it up for you. Very fresh and tasty. Return visits will be made.

I had a great day touring in spite of the fact I left my compact Totes umbrella on the return ferry... I was too absorbed in the new issue of Time Out Istanbul to notice my mistake.

Have a good day!

Amy

Anatolian Weights and Measures - Pera Museum

The Pera Museum in Istanbul has an extraordinary collection of Anatolian Weights and Measures, of which just a few samples are shown here. One of the oldest pieces in the collection is a weight in the form of a sleeping duck from the Neo Assyrian period, 7th century B.C. and made of basalt. Later, in the Babylonian Period, 2nd millenium B.C., weights in a similar form of sleeping ducks are made of bronze.

My favorite weights were made of glass of various colors in the Byzantine Period, 6th-7th century A.D.

The glass weights were evidently the favorite of someone in the later Ottoman Period, as a bracelet was made of these early Islamic glass weights.

In the Roman Period, it was popular to make the Steelyard weights to represent important figures. Here is Hercules, made of bronze-lead.

And here are two empresses and a third fellow, whose details I did not capture. They are made of bronze-lead from the 5th - 6th century A.D.

Spherical weights with ring handles were made during the Ottoman Period, 19th - 20th century, of iron.

And finally, ring shaped weights were made during the Ottoman Period, 1876 - 1910, of brass. These were made at Tophane in Istanbul and were made according to the metric system.

Pera Museum - Botero

I had a wonderful excursion to the Pera Museum this week. They are currently hosting a temporary exhibit of the work of the Colombian artist Fernando Botero. The Pera Museum is housed in a beautiful building built in 1893. It was established as the Pera Museum in 2005, after previously being a hotel. There are 5 exhibition floors to the museum and the Botero exhibit was featured on 3 of the 5 floors. Included in the exhibition was a video of Botero's life, made in honor of his 75th birthday, 3 years ago. Botero started painting and drawing at a yound age. He initially drew figures from the church, as they had the best costumes! The people portrayed in his work are rounded, to enable more space to paint - they are not fat! Series of his paintings in this exhibition include circus characters, matadores, and "after other artists". The painting used for the sign is "After Velasquez".

Replicas of his paintings were mounted on the elevator doors on each floor. I have some pictures of them here. The matador in black is a self portrait. The exhibit continues until July 18th, in case anyone is in the neighborhood.

The Pera Museum also houses permanent collections of 17th to 20th century paintings of Istanbul made by foreign artists, Anatolian weights and measures and Kutahyu tiles and ceramics. I will make another post for weights and measures. More information about the museum is on their website http://en.peramuzesi.org.tr/