Turkey’s first and largest plastic arts museum, the Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture presents “Half Silver, Half Foam”, an exhibition of selected works from the Taviloğlu Collection, on December 20.
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 including masters of Turkish painting such as Vecih Bereketoğlu and Zeki Faik İzer, can be visited at the temporary exhibition hall of the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum until February 20, 2024.
Curated by: Neslihan Muratbeyoğlu
Istanbul is unthinkable without the Bosphorus, and the Bosphorus is unthinkable without fish, from catch to table. In Turkish painting, many painters, from Military Painters (Asker Ressamlar) to the Independent Painters Group (Müstakil Ressamlar Grubu), and from there to the D Group (D Grubu), 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. Fish and fishermen in the Bosphorus, which is an indicator of Istanbul’s multiculturalism with its rich food culture as well as the fish names and fishing (maritime) terms that have passed from Greek and Italian, have created a bracket in Turkish painting while occupying a wide place from daily life to literature. The line from Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar to contemporary Turkish poetry 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. “Yarısı Gümüş, Yarısı Köpük” presents Istanbul, from labor to pleasure, from its nature to its multicolored cultural heritage, from the perspective of the artists who depict fish and fishermen.
Sergi adı Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’nun İstanbul Destanı şiirinden alınmıştır. The title “Half Silver, Half Foam“, is taken from the verses of Bedri Rahmi Ey¸boğlu’s Istanbul Epic.
