Küra Kolektif’s exhibition at The Muradiye in Istanbul brings together 74 works by 29 artists from the 1950–1970 U+K Art Collection. The selection presents long-unexhibited abstract works, including pieces by Ferruh Başağa, Nuri İyem, Füsun Onur and Nil Yalter. Open through 12 December, it explores a period of change in Turkish painting after the Second World War.
Küra Kolektif has opened Hikayenin En Güzel Yeri: Türkiye’de Soyut Resim at The Muradiye in Istanbul’s Karaköy district. The exhibition brings 74 works by 29 artists from the 1950–1970 U+K Art Collection into public view. This selection is being shown for the first time and is scheduled to remain open until 12 December. Long-unexhibited abstract works by Ferruh Başağa, Nuri İyem, Füsun Onur and Nil Yalter are among the pieces on display.[1], [2]
Küra Kolektif director Elif Özgen placed the works within artistic changes following the Second World War. She described interaction among changes at the academy, students returning from abroad and artists learning outside academic institutions. For Özgen, colour, line, patches of paint and geometry offered ways to express an artist’s inner world. She said the exhibition’s title reflects the poetic quality she associates with abstraction, and discussed its relationship with older debates over representation, perspective and imitation.[1]
Özgen said the collection was formed to explore overlooked changes, artists and works in Turkish modern and abstract painting. The collective plans thematic exhibitions covering earlier periods and later developments in abstraction, alongside group and solo shows by living artists. Younger artists are also part of that programme. Özgen described a separate fifteen-day event planned to start on 15 December, with details due in November. A catalogue of the inaugural exhibition is planned as the collective’s first publication.[1]
