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An Overview of the Turkish Students of André Lhote

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An Overview of the Turkish Students of André Lhote An Overview of the Turkish Students of André Lhote Zeynep Kuban ABSTRACT In the history of Turkish painting of the 20th century André Lhote has been known as the teacher of many Turkish painters. His name appears in their biographies; the similarities of style have often been discussed. The Académie Lhote was frequented by many Turkish students from the second half of the 1920s to the middle of the 1950s. In Turkish history, this was the period of modernization when arts were directly promoted by the state. So far we have found the names of 32 Turkish students of Lhote, some of them famous in Turkey, some less known, and some almost completely unknown. Most of the names could not be found in the archive of André Lhote, as there are no com- plete enrollment lists. This article will present an overview of Lhoteʼs Turkish studentsʼ work, their careers and influences on the Turkish art scene as pro- fessors in the Academy of Fine Arts, as teachers in high schools, as museum directors and civil servants in the cultural departments of the government. Introduction Generations of artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries paved the path for the young artists of the new Turkish Republic founded in 1923, only two years prior to the establishment of André Lhoteʼs academy. To get an overall picture of the circumstances of fine arts during the early years of the Turkish Republic, in which the Turkish Lhote students were embedded, we will first take a short look into the past. The Republic was a new formation, but the previous social and political conditions played a role in shaping the next generations. 137 Zeynep Kuban Although representational art was known in the Ottoman Empire, paintings cre- ated on an easel and pictures on display were practically absent in public life until the 19th century. The circulation of paintings as art objects, their economic im- pact, and painting as a profession were not familiar concepts in the Ottoman Em- pire due to the political and social organisation. The lack of a broad aristocracy in the Ottoman system, lack of noblemen as commissioners and patrons, the absence of art museums and private art collections prevented the development of visual and figurative arts for the public, and as a result fine arts remained mainly limited to service of the Sultan and his inner circle of the court. The political, economic and social reforms in 1839 and 1856 which were oriented towards Europe, made significant changes in this respect, but progress was slow. State Involvement in Arts Education Institutions Until the establishment of the first Academy of Fine Arts in 1882, there were no official institutions or any significant private school of fine arts1. The Academy of Fine Arts (Sanayi Nefise Mektebi-Ali) was an outcome of the reforms during the Late Empire period when the Imperial Museum of Archaeology was also estab- lished. The son of the Prime Minister, Osman Hamdi Bey, a painter by training in Paris was appointed as the director of both institutions.2 Through his position in Art and Archaeology he became the conveyer of the State’s objectives for mod- ernization. After the foundation of the secular Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, the government put more emphasis on the significance of arts education. The enrolment to the Academy was offered to both sexes together. The establishment of the Istanbul Museum for Painting and Sculpture in 1937 was a direct imperative from Atatürk himself.3 1 There were only some private studios limited to small groups bearing no impact on the general population. Sinanlar, Seza, Pera’da Resim Üretim Ortamı 1844-1916, ITU PhD Thesis, 2008. (The Production of Paintings in Pera) 2 Eldem, Edhem, Osman Hamdi Bey Sözlüğü, Istanbul 2010 (The Osman Hamdi Bey Dictionary) 3 Modern art museums can play a role to create a “good image,” even by conservative governments 138 An Overview of the Turkish Students of André Lhote The State and the Arts The direct state involvement in artistic development and art education in Turkey can be assessed in different phases for its intensity starting from the last quarter of the 19th century until the middle of the 1950s. This is also the end of the period that students from Turkey attended the Académie Lhote. For a very long time public demand for the visual arts was too small to nourish a growing independent art scene because the society’s traditional reservations concerning figural depic- tion could not be overcome easily. This was the case in the late Ottoman Empire period and also during the first decades of the 20th century in the early years of the Republic. It was the state that promoted the Academy and fostered the education at the same time. As a result, the State remained the only employer of artists in permanent positions, as teachers in high schools, as professors in the academia or civil servants in ministries. The state also commissioned paintings for govern- ment offices such as ministries and state owned banks. The well-known art pro- ducers and the decision-makers in museums and academies were mostly all civil servants, dependent on the good will of the State. At the same time, they were also the decision-makers for scholarships, collections and state exhibitions. As long as the State needed them as enablers of modernisation, it remained a win- win situ- ation for the artists as well. State scholarships, job openings, even art museums were used as testimony to the presence of a modern state. This situation created an interesting reciprocal dependency, at least until the 1950s when the political situation started to change.4 The role of the State in the demand for the representation of a certain topic is often discussed. One typical example predates the Lhote Students: The govern- ment in 1914 employed the artists’ who had to return from Paris due to war, for painting large canvases glorifying the war, and emphasizing the great courage of in Turkey today, as shown by the opening of the Istanbul Modern Museum (financed by private funds) ahead of schedule. It was supported by the government to be opened earlier than planned to make fit into the schedule of some EU talks in Istanbul December 17. 2004. http://arkitera.com/ haber/7760/oya-eczacibasi-anlatti--istanbul-modernin-ilginc-hikayesi-15.01.2005. Last access: 15.09.2018. 4 For the discussion of how much the state intervened – one of many discussions: Altınoba, Buket, Die Istanbuler Kunstakademie, Chapter: Loslösung von Staatskunst und künstlerische Diversität in der Türkei, Berlin 2016, 251ff. 139 Zeynep Kuban Turkish soldiers. These paintings were subsequently sent to an exhibition in Vien- na.5 After 1923 the State organised exhibitions named “State Exhibition” (Devlet Sergileri), for example for the 10th anniversary of the Republic; the “Exhibitions of the Revolution” in 1933, and also commissioned paintings that showed the achievements of the new Turkish Republic. Another State organised program was the “Yurt Gezileri” (1937-1943) / Journeys in the Country (Üstünipek 1999, 40- 40). Artists were sent to various places in the rural areas to introduce the new art to a larger population, and on their return they were expected to use in their paintings the local motives/themes from the places they visited.6 Paris and after Paris Going to Paris was not a deliberate choice for Turkish artists. Together with ad- ministrative novelties the State fostered education abroad starting already in the 1860s. Most of the young Ottoman students were sent to Paris by the State for complementary or primary education and some for a military education. Some of the first Ottoman painters had a military background and formed a pioneer group. The most famous of them was Şeker Ahmet who like Osman Hamdi Bey and many other Ottoman students of the pre-Academy generation preferred to study with Gustave Boulanger.7 A group of the first graduates of the Academy went for complementary edu- cation to Paris around 1912 and were mainly students in the Atelier of Fernand Cormon and had to return upon the outbreak of WWI. This generation was rav- ished by the rich art scene in Paris and much frustrated after their return only to find themselves in a much smaller artistic environment limited to the Academy. They tried to foster a richer artistic environment by establishing an art society and 5 For detailed information on these paintings and the exhibition in Vienna in 1918, see Gören, Ahmet Kamil, Türk Resim Sanatında Şişli Atölyesi ve Viyana Sanat Sergisi, Istanbul 1997. 6 The re-organisation and modernisation of the countryside was one of the most tremendous challenges of the new Republic as more than 80% of the population was living outside of the cities and in 1935 the percentage of the literacy was only around 20%. www.tuik.gov.tr (Turkish Statistics Institute) 7 For detailed information on this painter Özsezgin, Kaya, Şeker Ahmet Paşa, Istanbul 2014. 140 An Overview of the Turkish Students of André Lhote organising exhibitions. The first example is the Society of Ottoman Painters, they inaugurated the Galatasaray Exhibitions that continued until 1951.8 Many of the members of this group became professors at the Academy like Ibrahim Çallı, Hik- met Onat. Ruhi Arel, who were holding the powerful positions when the Lhote students returned (Artun 2007:276). The next generation of the Academy graduates went to Paris around 1922/1923. They were funded privately by their families in the beginning, but later they re- ceived scholarships from the state.9 Based on their professors’ recommendations they mainly attended the Academy Julian, where Father and son Laurens were teachers (Artun 2007:206).
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