Western art history draws on periodization as a method for organizing knowledge about the art of the past. This article examines the use of periodization in Turkey between 1970 and 2010, focusing on a select number of Turkish-language narratives, published in books, journals, and exhibition catalogs. The artistic periods of Modern and Contemporary art, which are common in traditional Eurocentric art history, are also present in Turkish art history but followed by an additional period, which can be translated as Current. The use of shorter artistic periods in Turkish art history also presents differences to Western conventions, as the short periods can refer to a specific type of art as well as a period. This article examines different narratives, identifying novelties, changes, and repetitions in Turkish art historiography over a period of forty years. It discusses how Turkish art history challenges established models of modern art history. It aims to reveal the diverse temporal and original arrangements of the past, many of which are found in vernacular narratives and confront global dominant art histories.
In a recent interview, the visual artist Gülsün Karamustafa (b.1946, Ankara) revealed that the wedding dress displayed in the center of the Shield (1986) belonged to herself. 1 Bearing the shape of a shield, the work displays a wedding dress in the middle of ruffled tulles in different colors. Pulled to one side, metallic silver drapes in the upper part further emphasize the dress in the absence of a head. As the Shield is placed on the wall, the ends of the tulles that surround the wedding dress are tied up and left hanging down just above the ground, serving both to underline the form of the Shield as well as foreground the shift in meaning that has occurred for the dress.A couple of decorative artificial petals and leaves also hang all the way down the piece. The dress itself features a red bridal sash wrapped around the waist with a small plastic bouquet of flowers attached to it.The three-dimensional fabric collage appears to be very much aligned with Karamustafa's group of textile panels from the 1980s, which have been shown several times in a variety of exhibitions. Yet, the Shield was only displayed in 1986, at a couple of exhibitions in Istanbul and Ankara until it was recreated again in 2016 for Karamustafa's retrospective exhibition "Chronographia" at the Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, Germany. It was not shown in Karamustafa's first retrospective exhibition, which opened only a few years ago in 2013 at SALT Gallery in Istanbul. More strikingly, the only other work that was reproduced for "Chronographia," The View of Her Studio from 1985Studio from (1985, had been once before revived in 2006 for the "Anos 80: Uma Topologia" exhibition at Museu de Serralves in Porto, Portugal.The fact that this exhibition, which mapped the practices of the 1980s and 1990s, displayed
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