Ortakoy

Today's tour was to Ortakoy (middle village) on the European side of Istanbul. Ortakoy is well known for its most beautiful mosque, which sits at the edge of the Bosphorus. It was built in 1855 in the neo baroque style. Within the area of a block around the mosque, is a church, and...

a synagogue. As buildings are packed tightly into a small space in Ortakoy, it was impossible to get two much less three of these buildings in the same picture. The church and the synagogue were both tightly locked up. The mosque was open, but I lacked the required long skirt and scarf to enter, so the insides of these buildings will remain a mystery.

Walking on the road parallel to the Bosphorus, you find the Kabatas Boy's School. The meaning is a bit deceiving, as the school is located in Ortakoy, not Kabatas, and since 1994, enrollment is open to girls as well as boys. The school was founded in 1908, is very prestigious high school, and I think, private.

Adjacent to the Kabatas Boy's School and in a deeper shade of yellow, is the Galatasary University. Both schools face the Bosphorus, and I don't know how any learning could take place in classrooms with such beautiful views. I, for one, would be staring out at the vessels traveling the Bosphorus day dreaming.

Now that you have seen the schools up close, you can try to find them in this picture taken from the mosque.

Last, but not least, I found the Simla Gallery in Ortakoy, which has an exhibit of Sabrina Fresko's jewelry, called "Sculptures to Wear". Sabrina's workshop is in the same building and she teaches all aspects of jewelry metalworking. Sabrina's jewelry will be on display at MOMA in New York City in May 2011, as part of their "discover Turkey" theme.

Here is a bracelet she designed and made, which was published in Time Out Istanbul, a source for finding interesting things in Istanbul.

Beginning tomorrow, I will be one of Sabrina's students, trying to create my own sculpture to wear.

Art Fair and Book Fair

Yesterday I ventured out to the annual Art Fair being held at the Tuyup Convention Center located at a far end of town. Over 100 galleries were represented with a wide range of art, primarily modern art by current artists. I did see a Dutch and an Italian gallery, the balance being Turkish. $4000 was the price tag on the paintings I was arracted to, but I made no purchase. Running concurrently with the art fair is the book fair. Had I been in attendance earlier in the week, I may have seen the father and daughter pair, John and Maureen Freely,

who write about Istanbul and Turkey. Maureen also has translated recent novels of Orhan Pamuk and I hope she is busy working on his novel recently published in Turkish.

Most of the vendors at the book fair were selling academic text books for discounts between 20% and 40%. Bus loads of students were dropped off with lists of books to buy. The USA also had a spot at the fair, with pamphlets on topics such as democracy, freedom and human rights. Your tax dollars at work!

The shuttle bus I took to the fair grounds was no where to be found when I was ready to head home. So I followed the masses to the public bus, which would take me to the Metrobus, which speeds along special lanes regardless of traffic volume. I was eager to try this Metrobus, to see if it might be a possibility for going to the airport. The student sitting next to me had also been to the book fair and one by one, opened up all her new books and smelt the print with her nose to the pages. She then read the beginning of each book and returned it to the bag. All the time with a big smile on her face - a happy reader!

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.