For the 441st Art Meeting, we are visiting the exhibition “Half Silver, Half Foam” at the Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Turkey's first and largest plastic arts museum, with selected works from the Taviloğlu Collection.
Curated by Neslihan Muratbeyoğlu, the exhibition focuses on the themes of fish and fishing, which are important symbols of Istanbul. Taking its title from the lines in Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu's poem “The Epic of Istanbul”, the works in the exhibition reveal Taviloğlu's passion for the sea as well as his 50 years of collecting since 1972.
Adil Doğançay, Adnan Turani, Ahmet Münib, Ali Avni Çelebi, Ali Karsan, Avni Arbaş, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Cemal Tollu, Cevat Dereli, Fikret Mualla, Hale Asaf, Hikmet Onat, Mehmet Ali Laga, Mehmet Güreli, Naile Akıncı, Nedim Günsür, Nedret Sekban, Nejad Melih Devrim, İbrahim Safi, The exhibition consisting of 52 pieces of paintings, sculptures and installations interpreting fish and fishermen by artists such as Vecih Bereketoğlu, Zeki Faik İzer and other masters of Turkish painting is on display at the temporary exhibition hall of the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum until February 20, 2024.
Istanbul cannot be imagined without the Bosphorus, and the Bosphorus cannot be imagined without fish, from the catch to the table. In Turkish painting, many painters, from military painters to the Independent Painters to Group D, have painted fish and fishermen. It is more accurate to say that they painted Istanbul with its fish and fishermen, because fish and fishermen have a special place in Istanbul culture as one of the dominant themes of the Bosphorus.
While fish and fishermen in the Bosphorus, which is a reflection of Istanbul's multiculturalism with its rich maritime cuisine, as well as fish names and maritime terms of Greek and Italian origin, have a wide place in daily life and literature, they have also created a distinction in Turkish painting. From Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar to Bedri Rahmi to contemporary Turkish poetry, the line can also be traced in Turkish painting and contemporary art, from military painters to contemporary artists.
Fish and fishermen have a special place in Taviloğlu's collection. In the collection, which has continued uninterruptedly for more than 50 years since 1972, works on the theme of fish and fishermen, from painting to sculpture and installation, have been nourished by Mustafa Taviloğlu's special interest in the sea. “Half Silver, Half Foam” presents Istanbul, from labor to pleasure, from its nature to its multicolored cultural heritage, from the perspective of the artists dealing with fish and fishermen.
We visit the collection with Mustafa Taviloğlu and Neslihan Muratbeyoğlu, curator of the exhibition.
Tuesday, January 23
12.00-13.00
Address: Kılıçali Paşa Mahallesi, Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi, No: 6, 34425 Tophane
Beyoglu / Istanbul