Turkey Arts and Music
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
According to TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA, the most ancient products of Turkish art are goldsmiths and gold trimmings, already in use before the Christian era among the populations of the regions close to the Altai: they are generally called Scythians (fibulae etc., in the shape of stylized animals, worked cantilever). Textile art soon reached artistic level, both in the canvases for the decoration of the curtains and in the carpets. It is in these two fields that Turkey has made the greatest contribution to Islamic art, bringing a strong tendency to decoration since the 9th century. and with greater force from the 11th (➔ islam). In the Ottoman period, art and architecture were able to merge the experiences of previous eras by expressing themselves in original ways (➔ Ottoman, Empire).
The opening towards the West began in the 19th century. with the development, in painting, of new genres for Turkish culture (landscape, still life, study of the human figure): to remember Ahmet Paşa and S. Seyyit and above all O. Hamdi, director since 1881 of the Ottoman Imperial Museum and of Academy, founded in 1883 in İstanbul, the city leads even after the creation of the republic. The Association of Ottoman Painters, since 1917 Association of Turkish Painters, of which N. Güran was a member, with the magazine Naşir-i Efkâr («Promoter of ideas»), organized exhibitions, from 1923, also in Ankara. In 1933, group D, founded by N. Berk, was at the forefront of the avant-garde in Turkey while an interesting project sent artists to the various provinces.
In addition to cultural events such as the International Biennial of İstanbul and the Asia-Europe Biennial of Ankara, an important role in supporting contemporary art in Turkey has been played by both private galleries and institutions and exhibition centers such as the Center for Contemporary Art BM (1984) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (1992) in İstanbul. The attention to western expressive modes, from abstraction to pop art, from minimalism to conceptual art, and at the same time a recovery of tradition and the exploration of the border between East and West, have marked the research of the second half of the 20th century. . Influential personalities are A. Coker, A. Gürman. They have maintained a link with tradition, through the art of calligraphy, N. Okyay and H. Aytac, transmitted to the younger A. Alpaslan and H. Çelebi. K. Önsoy works in the field of material-gestural experiences; A. Öktem, E. Aksel, S. Kiraz are linked to conceptual researches, while M. Morova expresses himself through painting, collage and installation. H. Tenger creates committed installations, involved in contemporary reality; E. Ersen creates complex works, including photography, video, installation and action. He works in the field of video art Ö. Ali Kazma. In the use of advanced technologies and net art we remember G. Incirlioğlu, architect and photographer; xurban.net, an acronym born in 2000 as an Internet initiative, uses the world wide web for artistic projects, and is open to anonymous external contributions.
In architecture, the opening to modernism and avant-garde languages, also initiated by the presence of R. D’Aronco in İstanbul, was accentuated with the Turkish Republic through the activity of architects such as C. Holzmeister, H. Poelzig, B. Taut, P. Bonatz. Among the Turkish architects active at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, SH Eldem emerges who, despite being influenced by Western ways, felt the need for a national language. Of the following generations we remember Turkey Cansever and B. Cinici, while among the younger ones we can distinguish H. Tumertekin and Studio GAD.
MUSIC
Turkish musical theory is based on an articulated scale in a profoundly different way from the European one, which identifies within 24 sounds (derived from the 24 keys of the main Turkish instrument, a lute called tanbur) and distinguishes a hundred modes on this basis. Cultured secular music is closely linked to the Arab tradition. Sacred music is divided into three basic genres: Ilahi, the hymns for the various months of the Muslim year, Tevchic (praises of the Prophet), Ayni Cherif, repertoire of dervishes. A singular aspect of the relationship between Turkish and European music is the popularity it had in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. the music of the Janissaries (the bodyguards of the sultans), with its characteristic percussion instruments (triangles, drums, cymbals): called Turkish, was the object of imitation or at least of allusion by numerous composers, including WA Mozart and L. van Beethoven. The creation of a Turkish national school is mainly due to a series of composers born in the first decade of the 20th century. and mainly trained in Paris and Vienna, such as DR Rey, UD Erkin, AA Saygun, NK Akses, F. Alnar. More recently, N. Kodalli, F. Tüzün, I. Baran, M. Su. A national conservatory was founded in İstanbul in 1915, which was later joined by some major musical institutions such as the İstanbul Municipal Theater and the Ankara State Theater.
