Bare, Naked, Nude
A Story of Modernization in Turkish Painting
November 25, 2015 – February 7, 2016
On the 10th anniversary of its inauguration, Pera Museum is proud to present the exhibition “Bare,
Naked, Nude,” which sheds light upon the development of nude painting in the modernization
period of Turkish art. Open from November 25, 2015 until February 7, 2016, the exhibition explores
how art production in a timeline extending from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic and dominated
by landscapes and still lifes made room for the emergence of the nude, a fundamental genre in art
history, as a pictorial form and theme. The exhibition also brings to fore the idea that nude painting
is symbolic in revealing how the process of modernization in Turkey is reflected on art. Curated by
Ahu Antmen, the exhibition includes nearly 150 works, including academic studies, by 44 artists of
different periods.
Displaying works by artists including Osman Hamdi Bey, Süleyman Seyyid Bey, Halil Paşa, İzzet Ziya Bey,
Avni Lifij, Ruhi Arel, İbrahim Çallı, Namık İsmail, Melek Celal Sofu, Cemal Tollu, Zeki Faik İzer, Bedri Rahmi
Eyüboğlu, Eren Eyüboğlu, Fikret Mualla, Leyla Gamsız, and Yüksel Arslan “Bare, Naked, Nude: A Story
of Modernization in Turkish Painting” exhibition follows the footsteps of nude paintings produced
secretly and few in number at the turn of the 20th century and copiously during the Republican and seeks to
demonstrate artists’ efforts to overcome the cultural resistance against artistic representations of nudity.
Noting that the subject of nudity is a rather complex concept that not only encompasses historical and
social processes that includes various transformations from tradition to modern, but personal sensitivities
as well, Ahu Antmen adds, “While addressing the development period of nude painting in Turkish art with
this exhibition, we also aim to reflect upon the creation of the artist’s identity in Turkey in a period extending
from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic; the challenges of creating a desexualized artistic perception
about the female body culturally associated with what is intimate; and the ties established between art and
nude painting in the conception to modern identities.”
A large portion of “Bare, Naked, Nude” is comprised of drawings, a requisite of academic art education,
from different periods, starting with the first Ottoman artists such as Osman Hamdi Bey, Süleyman Seyyid
Bey, and Halil Paşa. While the first nudes displayed by Namık İsmail, İbrahim Çallı, Melek Celal Sofu, and
Feyhaman Duran reveal the early artistic development of the Second Constitutional Monarchy period,
nudes of innovative artists such as Zeki Faik İzer, Cemal Tollu, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, and Eren Eyüboğlu
in the Republican era stand out as the forerunners of artistic modernism in Turkey.
The symbolic meaning of the concept of nudity in the dichotomy of conservatism-modernity
“Bare, Naked, Nude” exhibition also examines how nude painting became “normalized” through the culture
of art in a cultural climate in which even using live models was considered objectionable when the first
academy of fine arts was inaugurated in İstanbul. Contrary to the conservatism of the Islamic culture, yet
reflecting the aesthetic norms of the Western culture, nude paintings reveal how the body was extracted
from being a subject and evolved into a form in the course of the development of art culture in Turkey.
Meşrutiyet Caddesi No.65, 34443 Tepebaşı - Beyoğlu – İstanbul Phone. + 90 212 334 99 00, info@peramuzesi.org.tr www.peramuzesi.org.tr
Following the opportunity Turkish artists were given at the turn of the 20 th century to first work with male
models at the Academy of Fine arts, and later with both male and female models as some of them were
studying art in Europe, the human body was, through an infinite repertoire of poses, transformed into just
another genre such as landscape, still life, or portrait for artists. Meanwhile, due its perception as a genre
representing the female body in particular, the nude assumed a symbolic meaning not only in terms of
cultural conservatism-modernism, but as a way of revealing the gender-biased aspect of artistic
approaches. Noting that “nude” primarily evokes the idea of a female body, Ahu Antmen adds that this way
of perception legitimized by the West also found its reflections in Turkish painting.
Modernism and the nude
Gravitating towards the nude from themes such as sub bathing, caique excursions, sea baths, etc., after
displaying their works of landscape, still life, portrait at the Galatasaray Exhibitions the Ottoman Association
of Artists organized as of 1916, Generation 1914 artists such as Namık İsmail, İbrahim Çallı, and Melek
Celal Sofu produced nude paintings that shunned academism and emphasized an impressionist sensuality
in the 1920s. In the Galatasaray exhibitions of the 1930s, on the other hand, more modernist nudes of
artists such as Cemal Tollu and Zeki Faik İzer came to fore. Ostracizing sensuality and focusing on the
deformation of form, the new nudes not only reflected the artists’ individual search for style, but they also
demonstrated the aspects of European modernism Turkish painting embraced. “Bare, Naked, Nude”
exhibition creates a basis over which viewers can recognize the diversity of styles Turkish painters attained
so soon after being introduced to a new genre they were ably to work with as of the 1920s.
Exhibition curator Ahu Antmen stresses that the nude is one of the primary indicators of the ways in which
Turkish painting broke out of its shell both in the cultural and the stylistic sense. Adds Antmen, “For many
artists, the nude constitutes a bridge on the path leading to his/her own conception of the figure; the issue
is not the naked human body but how it is perceived as a form with its infinite appearances, movements,
and expressions. This artistic perspective requires us to look at the human body as nature itself, beyond all
cultural norms. The nude painting thus holds a symbolic importance as a dichotomous artistic genre that
both makes this possible and simultaneously destroys it due to its display.”
Open to visitors as of November 25, 2015 at Pera Museum, “Bare, Naked, Nude” will continue until
February 7, 2016.
The Museum can be visited Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 AM to 7 PM and on Sundays from 12 PM
to 6 PM. On Fridays, also known as “Long Friday”, admission is free of charge from 6 PM until 10 PM.
Exhibition hall paint sponsor
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For further information please contact
Hilal Güntepe / Grup 7 İletişim Danışmanlığı hguntepe@grup7.com.tr - (0212) 292 13 13
About Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum:
Pera Museum is a private museum established in 2005 as part of Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation to offer high quality and extensive services in the
field of culture and arts. Originally designed in 1893 by architect Achille as the Bristol Hotel, the building was restored with its façade intact and
transformed into a modern and state-of-the-art museum in 2005. With its permanent collections and temporary exhibitions including those of
globally renowned artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Alberto Giacometti, as well as many other events since its
inauguration, Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum has evolved into one of the leading, most popular, and most prestigious museums of
Turkey and continues to serve as a modern museum-cultural center at one of the most lively and central parts of the city.
Meşrutiyet Caddesi No.65, 34443 Tepebaşı - Beyoğlu – İstanbul Phone. + 90 212 334 99 00, info@peramuzesi.org.tr www.peramuzesi.org.tr