Picasso in Istanbul

It was for the first time that Istanbulers witnessed an event like this. We woke up one morning to see some gigantic posters on buildings and full-page newspaper ads, brochures and news on TV. Picasso in Istanbul exhibition was being announced. Picasso arrived covering the historic buildings of Istanbul. 2214 outdoor activities of 10 different sorts, 18.674 m² of posters, hundreds of thousands of brochures... 150 people worked for 3 months for the accomplishment of this amazing publicity. Thanks to the hard work of advertising agencies and PR companies, thousands of news was placed in Turkey and in the world. Yes, Picasso was in Istanbul indeed.
It was the first time that such intensive and disproportional advertising campaign was conducted. Turkey’s membership to the European Union was being negotiated, a big national and international event of publicity was organized simultaneously. With this strategy, the Sabanci University Sakip Sabanci Museum announced that it would house 135 works of Pablo Picasso, one of the outstanding artists of the 20th century.
The works were selected by the grandson of Pablo Picasso, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, and compiled from the collections in the Picasso Museums in Barcelona and Paris, the Lille Modern Art Museum, the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA), as well as from the family collections.
In the exhibition supported by the Sabanci Group, the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte and the French Consulate in Istanbul, some photographs taken by famous photographers were also displayed of the artist of the studios he worked, and of the people close to him.
The writer of these lines traveled on a Sunday from where he lives to where the exhibition was held; he got there in 4 hours. Despite the ticket purchased in advance he could not get in owing to the masses waiting outside crowds. He had another attempt during the week. Waiting two and half hours in the line, he managed to get in. He glanced around the collection, lacked concentration; the exhibition was beautifully laid out though.
This incredible publicity exploded the demand for art in Turkey in an unusual way and set the agenda. What does this exhibition signify really? Let us trace back to olden days a little...
Since the late Ottoman Era, the people in power have always strived for reformations to be westernized. Even though there was no demand on people’s part, such regulations were put in effect, which were not truly adopted. With the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic was proclaimed and enforced reformist laws within a western perspective. For instance, Turkish women were given to the right to select and be selected in 1934, much earlier than many European countries, yet today only 4.4% of the Turkish parliamentarians are women.
Turkey has been working to be westernized since 1959 when it declared its wish to be a member of the European Economic Community. It was assumed that when an islamist party came to power in 2002, this process would slow down. On the contrary, AKP performed amazingly regarding the relations with the EU, and achieved to fix a date for negotiations.
Within this process, social and political rules and regulations started to be modified in line with European regulations, without a public consent. Without a doubt, some steps had to be taken in the realm of art, too. When it comes to the developments in art, Eczacıbaşı, one of the leading industrial groups in Turkey, has been sponsoring art just as other industrial companies. One of the partners of the Group, Oya Eczacıbaşı, had a interesting proposal or a request from the Prime Minister just before the meetings to be held to discuss whether a date should be given for negotiations. Istanbul has had an international film festival for 25 years, there are a lot of artistic activities going on in the city, and nevertheless the city lacks a modern art museum! Ms Ezcacıbaşı explained that Istanbul Modern museum to be opened at the Galata harbour across the Topkapi Palace would speed up our process of Europeanization. The Prime Minister, thinking positive about the proposal, supported it, and Istanbul Modern opened within an incredible short time, three months. Istanbul now has a modern art museum just like MOMA or Tate Modern. This amazing performance was created not by Turkish artists or art lovers but by a Prime Minister who believed in its contribution to the EU process and a group that has always sponsored art.
The art wave grew with Istanbul Modern. Some other groups similar to Eczacıbaşı accelerated their investments in art and culture. The Pera Museum opened in June, 2005 and at the end of a sweet competition at an auction purchased “The Tortoise Trainer”, an Osman Hamdi Bey painting, at the price of 3.7 million USD. This record fee made the museum popular instantly. Well, a sweet competition went on... Sabancı Group that always supported art made a new attempt and turned what used to be the Sabancı family house into a museum, upon Sakıp Sabancı’s will. This historic house was renovated making use of the latest technology and with an incorporation of an annex to reach the museum standards worldwide, which can now house exhibitions in a 3500 m² space.
Today Sabanci Museum displays very valuable manuscripts and paintings dating 19th and 20th centuries in this spacious museum, also houses various exhibitions from within the country and from the world.
Sakıp Sabancı Museum is a Sabancı University enterprise, thus bears a title of an educational institution. Within this framework, various training programs are conducted in the museum as well as music event. All permanent and temporary exhibitions are made public through the net. The museum offers all the facilities for the disabled too. Despite the above mentioned assets, due to its location coupled with its non-populist policy, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum had a select clientele far from the attention of the masses.
I trust the exhibitions housed in the Sabancı Museum before the Picasso in Istanbul will give an idea about the concept of the museum: Human and Horse, From the Medicis to the Savoias, Ottoman Splendour in the Florentine Palaces, Paris – St. Petersburg: Three Centuries of European Fashion from the Alexandre Vassiliev Collection, European Porcelain at the Ottoman Palace and The Image of Turks in Europe in the 17th Century.
Shortly before his death, Sakıp Sabancı expresses his wish for a worldwide exhibition, which is materialised soon after his death.. in an epoch of sweet competition between museums. Such was the climax.
The Sakıp Sabancı Museum, which has an original and successful line, has added a new dimension to its line with the accomplishment of the Picasso Exhibition, with opening its door to a pioneer of modern art. This way Sabancı Group had a great leap forward within the competition triggered by Istanbul Modern. Picasso in Istanbul helped not only with our European image when the negotiations with the European Union were on the way but also with the competitive edge of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, which lagged behind owing to its location.
On the other hand, when it comes to the image of the Turkish: Turkish people are considered oriental in the west, occidental in the east. Such is the case for ever. Within this dilemma of being the other, Turkish people have tried worked to be occidental having values of the Orient.
With this effort, Turkish people have always worked to understand Europe and the values attached to it. It goes without saying that the Turkish public was thrilled to meet with the Picasso icon that they associate with the European culture albeit, they find it hard to comprehend. For the Turkish audience, Picasso was much more than a mere figure symbolizing modern art. He was the symbol of uncomprehendable western images.
Picasso in Istanbul was announced with an unequalled scope of advertising and publicity. Obviously, an artist like Picasso would not require an immense publicity, yet the Sabanci Group and the Sabancı Museum would benefit from it reinforcing their image. These advertising and publicity activities were not in vain, Picasso in Istanbul was met with great attention. Various tours were organized from all over the country to visit the exhibition in Istanbul. Those who hadn’t encountered a classical or figurative painting in a gallery in their lives made a dramatic effort to meet with the icon of modern art. Waiting hours in a line, you would enter quite a busy space. In the galleries packed with people, the Turkish audience watched the works in sort of a sense of community, a little absentmindedly. I think it would not be incorrect to say that the audience, majority being female and young, on most part, was not regular art gallery goers.
While the biggest museum in Turkey, the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum, encompassing over 8000 art objects has been starving to death, with roofs leaking, with no visitors, the expenses made for the publicity of Picasso in Istanbul strikes one as a kind of contradiction.
The Picasso in Istanbul exhibition held, between November, 24th and March, 26th 2006, had a total number of 253.999 visitors. 58% of the visitors were female, and a great majority of them belonged the 19-25 age group. Turkey has a young and dynamic population, thus this profile of the visitors is understandable in terms of the values and the image attached to a Picasso exhibition.
In a nutshell,
1. Choosing Picasso has been the key for a worldwide exhibition. The Sakıp Sabancı Museum proved to be a worldwide museum housing this exhibition.
2. Nazan Ölçer, the manager of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, explains the objective and the accomplishment of this exhibition as follows: «We broke the stereotypes in the international arena and proved our European identity with the Picasso in Istanbul exhibition. We will continue with our efforts to introduce international artists and works of arts to the Turkish public».
3. Since the Ottoman era, Turkey has been striving to comprehend Europe, to be an European and to be accepted as an European. The Picasso in Istanbul exhibition is not just a painting exhibition but rather a proof of a wishful thinking of our European identity.

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