Notes From the Road – Ankara Museum of Art and Sculpture

Recently I was in Ankara, Turkey, primarily to see the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, a museum that has the finest collection of artifacts from the Hittites, Phrygians, and other ancient civilizations of central Turkey.  The ticket seller informed me that most of the museum was closed as they were rearranging the collection.  Devastated, I walked around for a while in a state of shock until someone suggested I go to the art museum.  ‘Sure, why not’, I thought.  I’d seen little Islamic art in my month in Turkey, assuming that was what this art museum displayed.  Was I in for a surprise!   The Ankara Museum of Painting and Sculpture (Resim Heykel Muzesi, in Turkish) is a museum of late 19^th and early 20^th Century European Impressionism and Modernism, but with a Turkish twist.  There were Post-impressionism still life paintings, Impressionism landscapes with views of mosques on the Bosphorus, American Realism (Ash Can School-like), but the scene was Old Ankara.  German Expressionism-like paintings in the vein of Der Blaue Reiter with Franc Marc-like horses (OK, without the garish colors), but also bar and night club scenes with all the garish colors just like the German Expressionism of Ernst Kirchner.  Cubistic paintings were also represented, as you can see below.

Ismail Altinok (1920-2002)  Namik Kemal Ortaokulu ['Namik Kemal Secondary School']

Ismail Altinok (1920-2002)  Namik Kemal Ortaokulu ['Namik Kemal Secondary School']
Looks like some of the early cubistic paintings of Picasso.

Ibrahim Calli (1882 - 1960) Portre  ['portrait']	Şükriye Dikmen   (1918-2000)   Portre  ['Portrait']	Arif Kaptan  (1906 - 1979) Paristen Paris  ['Paris, from Paris']

The Slide Show below displays of some of the paintings from the  Ankara Museum of Painting and Sculpture.  You can see the Slide Show Full Screen on your computer screen by double clicking on the images below, click Slideshow in the upper left.  You can view Full Screen by selecting the F11 key.  To get out of Full Screen, select the F11 key again or select the Esc key.




One whole gallery was devoted to Fikret Mualla Saygi  (1903 - 1967) , one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, most of his paintings on display were watercolors behind glass and impossible to photograph without reflections.  The YouTube video below shows many examples of his beautiful paintings.

He was born in Istanbul.  He went to Switzerland to study engineering but wound up in Berlin instead.  He studied art, where he was influenced by the German Expressionism and Fauvism.
At one time he returned to Turkey where he taught art in the small North Aegean seaside town of Avalik.
He lived and painted in Istanbul for awhile but, unfortunately, his paintings were not well received.
In 1937 he decided to return to Europe where he felt he could achieve more respect as an artist.
He did achieve recognition in Paris where he was friends with a number of well known artists, including Pablo Picasso. He had  two successful exhibits of his painting in the mid 1950's.  also received the patronage of
Sadly, he suffered a lifetime of mental health problems and alcoholism.  He died in Paris in 1967.
As requested in his will, his remains were returned to Istanbul where he is buried.

So, if you find  yourself in Ankara with time on your hands a visit to the Ankara Museum of Painting and Sculpture will not disappoint.

References:
Google Translate was used to translate the painting titles to English (In Turkey, I struggled to even get 'Thank you' correct, teşekkür ederim)
Turkish Wikipedia (Vikipedi) was used for the biography of Fikret Mualla Saygi.
Many thanks to Hatice Şeker for the gorgeous YouTube video on the paintings of Fikret Mualla Saygi.

Note on images in the slide show: I like to get the frame in my images of paintings to as I think this is a relevant part of the painting and the frame can give an indication of the size of the painting.  Unfortunately, due to problems with glare, size of the painting or where the painting is hung, it is difficult to shoot the painting straight on so the opposite sides are parallel.  My apologizes.