Painting and Sculpture Museum offers sneak peek into vast collection

With “Serginin Sergisi” (“The Exhibition of an Exhibition”), the İstanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum, run by the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, opens to museum goers four sections whose restoration is complete, thus offering art lovers a chance to visit an exhibition from the museum's early days, one which was originally displayed some 72 years ago when the museum was inaugurated. This particular exhibition was opened by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on Sept. 20, 1937, at the Crown Prince's Pavilion of Dolmabahçe Palace, where the museum has been housed since.

This time around the exhibition is also accompanied by newspaper clippings and photographs from the time of the first show. But this current run of the exhibition is just a brief chance to catch a glimpse of the museum for now, because in two months, the museum will once more close its doors for the upcoming stage of restoration, which is expected to be completed by 2010.

With its vast permanent collection of over 10,000 items, the İstanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum is potentially the best of Turkey's museums. However, for years, the museum has not been able to put all of its holdings on display -- generally due to a lack of sufficient exhibition space -- and thus it often gave them on loan for display in private museums around İstanbul.

The İstanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum awaits support not only from art circles but from art lovers as well. Only through this support can the museum gain vitality. “The Exhibition of an Exhibition” is somewhat the reflection of this urgency. The museum administration is trying to turn the public's attention to the fact that this old but glorious building can turn into a magnificent museum when it is rescued from remaining idle.

The 325 canvases and sculptures included in the original version of this exhibition over seven decades ago chronicled a 70 to 80-year period from the recent history of Turkish painting and sculpture. Assembled from a variety of institutions, notably the İstanbul State Fine Arts Academy (which today serves as the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University), the exhibition was basically divided into three sections called The Primitives, The Middle Era and The Modern Era.

The first exhibition underscored the value and importance attached to fine arts by the young Turkish Republic and to the role of fine arts in the education of the society. But because many of the original 325 pieces included in this first exhibition were sent off to a variety of institutions for various reasons, the exhibition which is open now is made up of what has remained from the original collection.

From Osman Hamdi Bey to Feyhaman Duran

“The Exhibition of an Exhibition” is made up of 116 paintings and 24 sculptures, divided into five sections arranged chronologically. These include “Major Artists of Ottoman Painting,” “Turkish Impressionists,” the “1914 Generation” and the “Republican Era.” Various artist movements such as the “Group D” and the “Independents” are also featured as subcategories. The museum's renewed walls are now hosting canvases by such renowned artists as Osman Hamdi Bey, Şeker Ahmet Paşa, Süleyman Seyyid, Nazmi Ziya, İbrahim Çallı, Feyhaman Duran, Hikmet Onat, Şeref Akdik, Nurullah Berk and Şefik Bursalı, among many others. The fact that these pieces have made their way, even if only for a short time, out of darkened depots to daylight, is a sign that the museum is about to spread its wings one more time.

Nevertheless, many other sections of the museum are still awaiting restoration. Once all the other components of the building are fully revamped, the thousands of pieces making up the museum's vast collection will see the light of day.

It is evident that positive developments await the museum, which can be billed “the main database of Turkish painting and sculpture.”

“The Exhibition of an Exhibition” runs until Aug. 28. The museum is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.