ARTISTIC AWAKENING in ANKARA (1953)1 Bülent Ecevit

DOCUMENT

ARTISTIC AWAKENING IN ANKARA (1953)1 BÜLent ecevit

Until very recently, we Ankara residents were as jealous of Istanbul’s artistic awareness as we were of its sea and its trees. Our trees have yet to reach maturity, and we are as distant from the sea as ever, but an artistic awakening has now begun in Ankara as well. Concert tickets have begun to sell out in the blink of an eye, as soon as they are available. Curiously enough, tickets to the opening night of the opera reportedly sometimes sell out even before they are released.2 I say “reportedly” because this is a story I heard from one of the people interested in opening nights at the opera. Our opera no longer admits people to the concert hall who are ungroomed or who lack a formal dinner jacket. There are frequent balls at the opera. You’d think you’re in 18th-century Vienna. Because, as far as we know, this kind of dandyism no longer exists in any 20th-century city. Even in the most traditional of cities, like London, people in dinner jackets sit side- by-side with those in sports coats.

1 First published in Turkish as “Ankara’da sanat uyanıs¸ı,” Dünya, April 2, 1953, n.p. 2 The Ankara Opera, designed in 1933 by Turkish architect S¸evki Balmumcu as a space for large-scale exhibitions, was converted for use as the Ankara State Opera by German architect Paul Bonatz in 1948. It was a widely recognized symbol of Turkey’s—and especially Ankara’s—cultural sophistication. The Ankara Opera was also a major social hub for the city’s art and literary crowds during the 1950s, a time when Ankara rivaled Istanbul for the status of the country’s top cultural center.

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In other Western countries, this type this Western In other countries, emerged Ankara. has in munity 8 7 which will be followed by an exhibition by the Eyüb the by exhibition followed an by be will which I of Hakkı exhibition an has currently gallery The talks. and related andsculptors painters about well-known screenings film are there addition, In painting. topic on of the modern talks given each Helikon, some atHelikon, Parnassus. of mountain at the gather some Muses would of the times, ancient not forgotten. once heard it is because good, also was strange it seemed that fact the engaged. broadly most it not, the is if and Ankara, in association of type this of first the Ibelieve, is, Helikon movements to survive. art (avant-garde) what is enables advanced [ association with explanatory captions. Arif Kaptan and I and Kaptan Arif captions. explanatory with paintings French of modern reproductions of some seventy exhibition Group the of Ten, Kaptan, an of and Hasan have opened exhibitions Since mid-October, gallery. enlightened and central most Ankara’s Pas¸a on Mithat gallery its While ments. not it is large, is Street On the evening of March 30, another concert program held in the the held in program concert 30, another of March evening the On Music Studio, where he contributed to the invention of electronic music in the early 1960s. early the in music electronic of invention the to contributed he where Studio, Music Electronic Columbia-Princeton the to composer the led room—ultimately the of front atthe played quartet aclassical while speaker ahidden from sounds emitting audience, the from circuit electronic an manipulated Arel which musicians—in Helikon of a group for composed piece a1957 (1919–1990), Arel Bülent of case the In music. experimental of I modes. abstract various to appeal an with painting, of paradigm klasik conservative the challenged that currents various in involved were here Ecevit by cited artists the of All The association’s musical branch endeavors contem to introduce association’s branch musical The The association will primarily take up today’s advanced art move up art today’s advanced take primarily will association The In Greek mythology. in of amountain name the was Helikon But abit to be strange. thought was name the beginning, At the ˙ lhan Usmanbas¸ (b. 1921) would go on to have a long, distinguished career as a composer acomposer as career Usmanbas¸lhan distinguished along, have to on go 1921)would (b. ˙ lhan Usmanbas¸,lhan with program atwo-night organized . 8 ˙ hsan C. Karaburçak have Karaburçak C. hsan o¨ncu¨ (avant-garde) og˘l us. ˙ zet’s ceramics, zet’s ceramics, 7 - of - ] - -

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