İstanbul for art lovers

There are now many places where you can see a range of fantastic paintings and art installations, some of them more obvious than others.

İstanbul Modern

Housed inside one of the old Tophane warehouses, İstanbul Modern (closed Mondays) is a gorgeous, light-filled gallery where paintings are displayed thematically. Come here first to get a feel for what Turkish art of the last 150 years has had to offer. Names to conjure with include Abdülmecid Efendi (1868-1944), Şeker Ahmet Paşa (1841-1907), Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910), İbrahim Çallı (1882-1960), Hamit Görele (1894-1980) and Fahrelnissa Zeid (1901-1991). The basement is devoted to changing art and photographic exhibitions, although the “False Ceiling” of books by Richard Wentworth is a venerable survivor from the 1995 İstanbul Biennial.

Santralİstanbul

Far less visited because of its location in Sütlüce, Santralİstanbul (closed Mondays) is an art gallery created inside a decommissioned power station in the grounds of Bilgi University. This is the place to come to view cutting-edge art installations rather than paintings, but depending on who is showing, it can make for an exciting visit.

Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art

Where would cities be without the benevolence of wealthy collectors who’re prepared to share their collections with the world? İstanbul is no exception, with one of its finest galleries showing off the collection of Sevda and Can Elgiz, a rotating selection of works not just by Turkish artists but also by the stars of the international art scene, including the likes of Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George and Cindy Sherman. The snag? The Elgiz (closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays) is stranded amid the high-rises of Maslak, a comment, perhaps, on the uncomfortable link between art and business.

Pera Museum

Much easier to get to than Santralİstanbul or the Elgiz, the elegant Pera Museum (closed Mondays) houses a marvelous collection of early İstanbul landscapes by the many foreign artists who passed through in the 18th and 19th centuries. But its single greatest treasure has to be “The Tortoise Trainer,” the magnificent Orientalist masterpiece of Osman Hamdi Bey, the artist responsible for the creation of the İstanbul Archaeology Museum. Far larger than the many tacky reproductions around town might suggest, it more than justifies the price of the admission ticket on its own.

Dolmabahçe Palace

Rushed guided tours make it hard to appreciate the fact, but the Dolmabahçe Palace (closed Mondays and Thursdays) actually houses one of the city’s largest art collections, including a set of images by the Italian court painter Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929) that portray Sultan Mehmed II in the process of conquering Constantinople. Tours tend to dwell on “The Sürre Procession,” a huge canvas by the Italian artist Stefano Ussi (1822-1901) that depicts the annual camel train bearing gold from the sultan to Mecca and Medina.

Yıldız City Museum

From the sublime to the ridiculous. At Dolmabahçe, you will be whisked past the paintings with no chance to study them, whereas at the City Museum in the grounds of the Yıldız Palace (closed Mondays and Thursdays), you’ll be lucky if you have to share the Şevket Dağ, İbrahim Çallı, Hamit Görele and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu canvases with a single other visitor.

Yapi Kredi Vedat Nedim Tör Museum

Often overlooked by busy shoppers, this small gallery just past the point where Yeni Çarşı Caddesi crosses over İstiklal Caddesi hosts exhibitions by living and past artists. Typical was its recent retrospective of the work of the extraordinary Semiha Berksöy (1910-2004) which included not just examples of her paintings but also recordings of her as an opera singer, as well as a complete reconstruction of the magical room in which she lived out the last years of her life in Gümüşsuyu.

Sakıp Sabancı Museum

When it comes to blockbuster exhibitions by such big-name international artists as Picasso and Dali, it’s usually the Sakıp Sabancı Museum (closed Mondays) in Emirgan that plays host. At such times, it’s also possible to see the museum’s own excellent collection of paintings that are not otherwise on display. At all times, you will be able to see the few select examples that hang in the recreated family rooms, including works by the Russian artist Ivan Konstantinovic Ayvazovsky (1817-1900), who was responsible for many of the naval paintings adorning the ceilings of the Beylerbeyi Palace.

Burhan Doğançay Evi

Tucked away at the Tarlabaşı end of Balo Sokak, off İstiklal Caddesi, this small house contains a collection of montages by Burhan Doğançay (b.1929), a contemporary artist sometimes called “the father of wall art” because of his obsession with the ways in which walls can be reused.

Aşiyan

At the point where Küçük Bebek merges into Rumeli Hisarı, Aşiyan (closed Sundays and Mondays) is a delightful house with views that used to belong to the poet Tevfik Fikret (1867-1915). Art lovers will want to visit it if only to see the beautiful painting “Sis (Mist)” by Abdülmecid Efendi, the artist who was also the last Ottoman caliph. It hangs upstairs beside the Fikret poem that inspired it.

Feyhaman Duran Evi

Of all the unlikely locations in which to find an artistic gem, Taşodalar Sokak in Beyazıt surely wins the prize for awfulness. Yet here you will find the wooden house in which Turkey’s first portrait artist, Feyhamam Duran (1886-1970), lived with his wife and muse, Güzin Hanım, as well as the atelier in which they produced their paintings. The walls of the house are mainly covered with calligraphic panels by Duran’s father, but upstairs in the bedroom, there’s one especially delightful portrait of the young Güzin. To see more of their work, you need only enter the grounds of İstanbul University and proceed to the top floor of the Rectorate, where hundreds of their paintings are on display alongside those of Selim Turan (1915-94).

Osman Hamdi Bey Evi

For real artistic die-hards, it’s worth making one last pilgrimage out to the summer home of Osman Hamdi Bey in Eskihisar, a small seaside suburb of İstanbul near Gebze. Hamdi and his family lived in one of the graceful wooden yalıs (seaside mansions) of which lamentably few survive. Unfortunately, the paintings on display inside the house are all copies, and there’s nothing to suggest where you can find the originals. Still, some of the wooden panels of the downstairs study door were painted by Osman himself, and you certainly come away with a sense of the range and quality of his work.