Introduction
Rapid globalization has brought to our attention the influence of modernity and urbanization on different aspects of our social, political, and economic lives. Atagok (4) says that because there is an expanding pressure of globalization in different aspects of our lives, everything is subject to a reevaluation and change. This outcome puts our traditional cultural views of art and literature at crossroads with new ideas on the same.
Additionally, it creates a clash between the norms, values, beliefs, and practices that have inspired artistic creativity in conservative societies and in liberal societies (Atagok 4). The clash between contemporary issues and universal value systems has emphasized the need to reevaluate our ideas about the bridge between what we understand as traditional norms, contemporary issues, and modern values. Similarly, from the same realization, we are forced to discuss different social and political issues that focus on a reexamination of the center vs. the periphery, the East vs. the West, and the local vs. the universal (Atagok 4).
In a cultural and artistic context, these reviews bring to our attention the need to reexamine the creative process and reevaluate different pieces of artwork that were previously done by non-western participants with those done by new crops of artists who do not want to conform to past prejudices and norms surrounding participation in art. The reexamination of issues pertaining to the creativity of different groups of artists stems from a reevaluation of the same issue by people who would have otherwise not questioned such issues in the first place.
Stemming from the global trend that has promoted equality of rights in different aspects of our social, economic, and political lives, including race, sex, country, religion, and sex, there has been a resurgence of a push to reexamine the same force of equality in mainstream art (Harris par1). This problem partly stems from the near-absence of women in mainstream art in certain parts of the world (mostly conservative societies).
Despite its scope and influence in this century, some sections of our society still do not understand how art and equality forces shape our understanding of contemporary, traditional, cultural and patriarchal norms we use to comprehend specific aspects of our lives. Indeed, in some instances, some of these forces conflict with our traditional views of gender, politics, art, science, and other aspects of our social lives (Harris par 1).
For example, the traditional Islamic view of women’s roles in art in its religious and social forms conflict with the forces of modernity that stem from globalization (Atagok 4). The secrecy associated with Islam and gender roles in some parts of Asia has further compounded this mystery because few people know what to make of the place of women in traditional Islamic societies and in today’s multilingual, and culturally diverse global society. Stemming from this realization, Haddad and Findly say,
“The institution of various forms of Islamic socialism, the imposition of the Islamic societies of a colonial superstructure of westernized institutions and values and the curious metamorphosis of Islamic society under the Soviet domination in central Asia have all had their effect on contemporary art from Islamic lands” (172).
Based on the above assertion, few people know what to make of contemporary Islamic art. This problem is more poignant in Western societies, which know little about Islam, or its social norms. Consequently, there are few publications and few exhibitions of contemporary Islamic art in western societies and, by extension, the larger global art space (Haddad and Findly 172). The same issue explains why there are only a few private collections of contemporary Islamic art in these societies and almost a non-existent public collection of the same in major western capitals.
Islamic art, in its most basic form, has mostly adopted subtle representations of women in western societies. In fact, some oriental painters of the 20th and 21st centuries adopted European representations of women in the Islamic world. The works of different Turkish painters, such as Zeki Izer’s in “The Road to Revolution – 1933,” explain some of these distorted European depictions of women in Islamic societies. In this work, we find that the artist personified the roles of women and gender in Islamic nations with a female figure borrowed from the Liberty at the Barricades (a European representation of women in the Islamic society) (Haddad and Findly 172).
From the paucity of materials on contemporary Islamic art, this paper investigates the roles played by female contemporary artists in Turkey in shaping the gender narrative that has always limited the creativity and expression of women in this country. Since Turkey is largely a Muslim state, the findings of this paper would be useful to our understanding of the role of women and gender in Asia and in the wider Islamic caucus of countries. However, before we delve into these details, it is important to understand why we chose to investigate the works of contemporary female artists in Turkey.
Why Turkey?
It is important to investigate the Turkish contemporary art scene because it is at a crossroads between embracing the modern view of art or maintaining the traditional view of the same. Indeed, Turkey stands right in the middle of Eastern and Western cultures, both figuratively and geographically. Consequently, it has to look back at its own history and reexamine its place in a multicultural society.
Concisely, as Harris (par 1) observes, the world today is having a “Turkish moment” in the sense that many progressive developing countries are starting to reinvent themselves as emerging markets of contemporary artwork. Referring to this observation, Harris says that “Today, Turkey is once again home to an extraordinarily vibrant contemporary art scene” (par 1). More importantly, many artists have taken a controversial view of unmasking the role of women in this art scene.
They have done so by reviewing the different layers of religious or cultural conditioning that have consistently prevented them from expressing their full artistic creativity when conveying what they think about the role of women in this society (Gulay 380). The works of Kezban Arca Batibeki and Taner Ceylan explain this strategy by developing pieces of art that portray strident imagery of women in the Islamic world.
Most of their works have portrayed women in burkhas, while others have portrayed them in barcodes (Haddad and Findly 172-173). Gulay (380) has documented provoking works that explain the role of women in Turkish society by revealing the works of Eller Yuraki and other artists who developed a painting showing bikini-clad women raising their hands next to a mosque. Some of these art pieces have drawn a lot of attention from mainstream media and art galleries around Europe.
For example, Eller’s works elicited a lot of attention at an art gallery in London, where a sale of Turkish contemporary art was ongoing in the city (Harris par 2-3). Some of her works fetched a premium (£121,250). This figure is three times what observers projected it would sell for because their initial estimate was about £35,250 (Harris par 2-3). At an auction for Ceylan, more than 15 artists sold their artwork and collected more than £2.4 million (Harris par 2-3).
The above figures outline a narrative that shows how Turkish contemporary art continues to draw the world’s attention. Part of the reason we see the good sales numbers in Europe is that observers expect Turkey to join the European Union in the future (Harris par 2-3). Furthermore, a new trend within Turkey that has seen the country undertake significant cultural and economic reforms. Relative to the increased attention directed towards Turkey, Harris says,
“Turkey has arrived. Not just in economic and political terms, but also in its resurgent contemporary art and cultural scene… the issues addressed in Turkey’s contemporary art movement have a direct link to the concerns of modernization faced by all non-secular Islamic societies” (par 4).
Most of the effort that stakeholders have directed towards transforming the country’s cultural scene is paying off because Turkey recently won the European Capital of Culture Award (Harris par 4). Those who have spearheaded this view have done so with the aim of synchronizing the country’s own artistic performance with the present western-styled artistic performance. To do so, they have examined the role of women in the Turkish contemporary art scene of the 20th century and compared it to their place in the 21st century. We have also done the same and outlined the role of women in the Turkish art scene below.
Role of Women in Turkish Art
According to Isaak (1), it is important to understand the social world of female artists to comprehend what their work is about and to come up with a picture that reflects their society holistically. In Turkey, different institutions have promoted a theme of cultural progressiveness embodied by the development of several institutions of art, such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul (Isaak 1).
Although most of the work produced by this institution is Islamic in nature, they have highlighted progressiveness as a core theme. There has been a consistent westernization of Turkish art throughout the years, but this trend started in the early 1920s when Turkey became a Republic (Harris par 3). This event brought new avenues for women to highlight their artistic creativity, while at the same time cutting their link with traditional values and norms that often held them back from expressing their artistic creativity. Relative to this assertion, Isaak (1) says that most artists who wanted to display reality moved away from traditional forms of art, and adopted a western-styled form of the same.
Early forms of art were developed by artists who wanted to develop portraits, or works of art, about people who were closest to them. Others were just glad that they found a new platform of showcasing their reality to the world (Isaak 1). Most of these artists developed works that showed their contempt for constraining aspects of the Islamic faith towards women. According to Haddad and Findly (172), rarely are their artists who attached their names to their works in traditional Islamic societies.
Therefore, except for a small clique of talented artists in the Islamic world, many Muslim artists produced works of art anonymously. This is, in part, because of the failure to differentiate the role of the artist and the role of the craft worker. Additionally, the lack of a strong theoretical basis to evaluate the art and the lack of critical literature about art did not help to improve the manifestation of Islamic-centered artists in the contemporary art space.
Given the anonymity associated with Islamic art and the exclusion of women in the same field, it was almost impossible to develop a body of historical work that highlighted the creativity of women in Islamic societies. Isaak (1) says there also other types of arts that historians have consistently ignored despite the fact that female artists almost exclusively developed them. For example, the rural arts of embroidery and rug weaving are specific types of artistic works that were almost exclusively done by women but rarely talked about.
What Changed?
Historically, Turkish women were only allowed to engage in traditional forms of art, such as embroidery and weaving. However, a lot of progress has been made since then, and today; more than 50% of all artists in Turkey are women (Atagok 21). This phenomenon is partly explained by the fact that most students who study in the art departments of many higher institutions of education in Turkey are women. Nonetheless, it is also pertinent to note that most of them struggle to finish their course.
There is also a silent phenomenon in Turkey, where some women join the art world from private practice (Atagok 21). Of striking observation is the imbalance in the number of male and female educators in art departments within these higher institutions of education because there are significantly more male educators compared to female educators in this sector. Comparatively, other fields of education, such as architecture, have a proper representation of both genders.
In Turkey, there are many art galleries where women could showcase their work. Most of these art galleries are in Istanbul (Ankara). The state and municipal galleries in these regions give young and upcoming artists an opportunity to showcase their work to Asia and the wider world. However, this has not always been the case because, in the 20th century, there were few women who were visible in the Turkish field of contemporary art. The tide only started to change in the 1960s (Atagok 21). Today, there are as many women in the field as there are men. Furthermore, studies show that the number of women will continue to rise in this field because they have a more individualistic and experimental attitude towards the development of their artistic pieces (Harris par 2-3).
For a considerable period now, Turkish women have moved away from using the close-knit surface painting, which has been synonymous with Islamic art for more than one century. From the same trend, the use of surface decoration and schematic imagery in Turkish contemporary art has been overtaken by events as many women have adopted different media and techniques to express their artistic creativity (Atagok 21).
The demographic of women who have changed the nature of Turkish contemporary art are mostly educated women who come from middle-class or well-to-do families. Most of them also speak multiple languages and have traveled to different countries. These social dynamics explain why they understand the nature of mainstream art in these countries. Most of these women also understand the different types of issues that affect women in Turkish society and have devised new ways of solving them through the adoption of different ways of contextualizing their artwork. Therefore, their medium and approach to communication have often differed from what Islamic contemporary art used to be.
Relative to this assertion, Atagok says, “From their different points of view, they take up different social and cultural issues, which emerge from their own history, environment, and approaches to working in specific sites” (22).
From an abstract point of view, most modern women in Turkey now act as observers and social critics of what is going on in their society and are increasingly reevaluating the identity of women in Turkish society. Most of these women have also chosen to further their creativity in writing and are now addressing some of the perennial gender bias issues that have traditionally dogged Islamic societies for a long time. To emphasize their new roles in the art scene, Turkish women have tried to provide context for their artistic creations. However, Harris (par 21) cautions that this change of strategy is not a group effort, but rather an individualistic view by women of Turkey about what is going on around them.
Questioning Orientalism by Turkish Female Artists
As highlighted in this paper, female artists in Turkey are increasingly redefining the way people see Turkish women in the contemporary art world. These views have pivoted on investigating several social issues relating to women and gender (Ersen par 1). Others have supported progressive movements in Turkish society, such as the movement towards feminism, by promoting equality in the arts. Oriental ideals provide another area of focus that these women have focused on.
Nil Yalter, Sukran Moral and Gulsun Karamustafa are some pioneers in this field of analysis because they have consistently questioned how society views the place of women in the art scene (Ersen par 1). At the same time, they have questioned the place of Orientalism in the Turkish contemporary art scene. For example, Nil Yalter, who is a French-based artist, questioned an artwork that had a woman (belly dancer) without ahead. She said the artwork depicted the disenfranchisement of women in Turkey (Ersen par 1).
Her work was among the first videos out of Turkey that were celebrated in France. She used the belly dancer image to symbolize the prejudiced oriental woman’s identity that permeates through different cadres of the Turkish society. Sukran Moral is another artist who has questioned traditional patriarchal norms about Orientalism. She did so through a performance artwork titled the “Turkish bath” (Ersen par 1). The work is a visual cultural symbol of the orient. It also has a feminist aspect in its formation that questions the place of Orientalism in Turkish art. In a commentary piece of this work, Ersen says, “The artist went to men’s bath in women’s bath to unset a taboo instead of placing herself; her body where she should be” (par 1).
Many observers have observed this work and seen it as a test to unsettle gender boundaries that have always characterized the Turkish society and other Islamic societies (Gulay 380). More so, they have strived to redefine the sexual identities of both genders. Nonetheless, what is important to note in this review is the boldness of the artist to break a taboo by developing a work of art based on her naked body. This is an affront on a “prohibited” area in the Turkish contemporary art scene. In another review of the artist’s works, Ersen says, “Sukran Moral both faces her identity as a feminist woman artist and an eastern/orient Turkish artist living and working in Italy. These struggles naturally led the artist to this questioning mind’s reflection of her artwork” (par 1).
Sukran Moral is not the only artist who has taken a bold step in questioning the place of Orientalism in the Turkish contemporary art scene; another Turkish feminist female artist called Gulsun Karamustafa has also done the same through different works, such as “From the Inside” and “Fragmenting” (July 380).
Through these works, she has expressed her criticism regarding the inclusion of Orientalism in the Turkish contemporary art scene. For example, in her work titled, “From the Inside,” the artist used different fragments of oriental paintings to develop her work and highlighted the theme of “objectification” as a constant theme that mainly permeates through different types of artwork that exemplify the theme of Orientalism. The artist has consistently used her feminist identity to question such norms and the visual cultural codes of the western collective memory to do so (Ersen par 1). Other notable works developed by female artists in Turkey appear below.
Examples of Notable Artistic Works, of Turkish Women
As highlighted above, Turkish women have reevaluated the traditional ideas of a woman’s identity through artistic experimentation. They have chosen to do so by reexamining the contents of their works and adopting different methods to express their creativity. The works of Bilge Alkor, Nese Erdok, and Nur Kocak explain some of these new strategic directions because, in their paintings, they express new identities by varying abstractions of human relation in soft and lyrical figures (Atagok 22). These works are partly represented through group portraits, which indicate human relationships. The following images highlight examples of some of these works.
Some Turkish contemporary artists have used ornaments and women’s clothes to explain the place of women in this society. Nur Kocak has been a pioneer in this regard, but her work has not been confrontational, despite it addressing the same gender bias issues in the Turkish contemporary art scene (Atagok 22). In other words, her works convey the position of women in society, using women’s ornaments and clothing, but at the same time not having the women in the works of art. The image below represents such works of art.
Another group of artists who have tried to reshape the position of women in Turkish contemporary art is comprised of Tomur Atagok, Ipek Aksugur, Inci Eviner, Hale Arpacioglu, Selma Gurbuz, and Canan Tolon (Haddad and Findly 175). These artists are mostly painters and sculptors. Other artists who fall in the same category are Candeger Fortun, and IsikTuzuner who are based in Amsterdam (Atagok 22).
These groups of artists have repositioned the place of women in the Turkish contemporary art world by using mixed media to convey their artistic expressions. They have also used symbolism and fragmented their artistic work to convey their core message, which is liberty for their artistic works (Haddad and Findly 175). Hale Arpacioglu has taken a slightly different approach from her peers by viewing the human being from a psychological standpoint.
However, other artists have taken a deeper and thought-provoking view of their artwork because they always strive to emphasize the importance of women’s identity in their artistic expressions. Tour Atagok, Ipek Agsukur, and Inci Eviner are some artists who have ensured that their artistic work is message-oriented (Ersen par 4). Consequently, their works are often fragmented or dissected. Others are made into symbols to emphasize the importance of identity. The image below represents an artistic piece of Tomur Otago. The work was developed in 1983.
Inci Eviner has taken a completely different approach to develop her work because she often strives to portray an interior life view of her works. This distinction was brought to light by Atagok (23) who has spent long periods commentating on women’s issues and analyzing the place of women in contemporary art, both in the present and in the past. Some of her works have strived to depict women as the vertebrae of society through their pivotal role in supporting motherhood roles.
Other artists, such as Ipek Agsukur, have taken an entirely different approach of the same issue and expressed their representation of women by taking multiple photos of themselves and transforming them into motifs of Anatolian goddesses (Haddad and Findly 175). Selma Gurbuz and Canan Tolon have also used the same strategy to express their artistic creativity on the same issue. Stated differently, they have also used Anatolian motifs to depict their idea of womanhood in Turkey. However, their works have had multiplying variations of this imagery. Relative to this assertion Atagok says, “Their works are rooted in reconsidering the past, but multiplication/repetition becomes a strong factor in their sculptures or installations” (23).
Candler Fortun is a Turkish female artist who specializes in modeling different parts of a human body into symbols that are representative of fragmented forms. Her products are similar to other works done by Selma Gurbuz and Canan Talon. Isik Tuzuner’s approaches are not necessarily different from the works of the authors mentioned above. She uses leftover materials and paints over them to create fragmented works of art. Part of her motivation for using this strategy is environmental protection (Gulay 392).
Other female artists who have had a significant impact on the contemporary Turkish art scene include Nil Yalter, Canan Beykal, and Gulsun Karamustafa. Although these women are mostly cultural and social commentators in the Turkish art scene, they have worked in the installation by moving their work from two-dimensional spaces into three-dimensional spaces. The works of some of these artists have stood out in reshaping Turkey’s cultural and social space.
More importantly, they have reexamined the place of women in this society by forging a more reconciliatory tone to their works (Gulay 380). For example, the works of Gulsun Karamustafa mostly depict how different genders could live together harmoniously. She has presented this idea by using stories or different fragments of stories. Some of these fragments have worked through connotations (Atagok 23).
Canan Beykal has used a different approach to speak about the same issue. She is among the first few conceptual artists that have used light, writing, voice, and video to transform two-dimensional artwork into three-dimensional creative works. Most of her products have spoken about different issues touching on gender in the Turkish contemporary society and in the wider Middle East region. However, they have mostly spoken about ethical issues and dilemmas on the same.
Pundits say that Nil Yalter is among the first few artists to delve into the social commentary space (Haddad and Findly 175). Although based in Paris, she is active in the international arena. Her work has focused on highlighting issues about human rights. To do so, she has used photographs, documents, and computer-generated graphics to reach her local, regional, and global audiences. Hale Tenger is another social commentary artist who has delved deeper into understanding the social issues facing women from minority groups in Turkey. Observers say she is arguably the youngest of all installation artists (Haddad and Findly 175). Historians have said that she has made a deep impression on her audiences by using materials from ready-made films and popular videos that talk about everyday social issues (Atagok 23).
Some artists have chosen to use a different approach by using the concept of space to evoke memory among their audiences. Those who have chosen to do so have done so by eliminating details in their work. They have also chosen to refrain from loading objects or images to their works and give them a new meaning. Atagok (23) delves into this discussion by giving us details about the nature of work undertaken by some researchers in this field.
For example, he says, “Handan Borutecence reconsiders the past with reference to particular historical sites while Ayse Erkmen, a DAAD scholar and another international artist, is interested in reducing the forms to its essential to convey a sense of the present site” (24). The author also talks about how other female artists have used different forms of artistic expressions to explain their views on the same matter. For example, when referring to the works of Fusun Onur, he says, “she frequently uses unexpected or second-hand materials in a different way to make personal statements about her life” (Atagok 24).
Comprehensively, we find that most of the artists mentioned in this paper use abstraction, fragmentation, and representation. We have also seen that others have used distortion and elimination. However, regardless of the strategies used by them, all the artists speak about the social culture that surrounds women in their society. Their works mostly depict a new form of experimentation and liberalization associated with a new crop of female artists who are striving to reshape conventional wisdom of women in the Turkish contemporary art space by using new and innovative forms of art to merge form with content.
Through their works, they give their views about different social issues facing the world by transforming their observations, feelings, and thoughts into reputable works of art. The transition represented by their works shows how far Turkish women have come from the anonymous women of Anatolia whose main forms of artwork centered on embroidery and weaving. The transition also reflects a paradigm shift in the pace of women in the art space because, in the past, they could only showcase their work at home, but now, they could do so at regional, national, and international levels. This fact is supported by the dozens of artists who have minted millions selling their work in major art galleries around London and in other European cities.
My Personal Experience
I have witnessed the female movement in the Turkish contemporary art scene while working as a freelance writer for the culture-based magazine in Ankara, Turkey. In my free time, I spent most days attending different art galleries and history museums in the city. I used such experiences to form the basis of my writing for which I reported to contemporary art aficionados who were staunch readers of our articles.
Since this job was fun for me, I made many friends who were not shy to tell me about the history of Turkish art. Some of them were old enough to explain to me how women were non-existent in the Turkish contemporary art scene. Despite loving good photographs and abstract paintings developed by some of the most celebrated Turkish artists, I learned a whole wealth of knowledge about the works of new female artists in the Ankara art scene.
My experience not only broadened my knowledge of the work undertaken by Turkish female artists but the wider art fraternity in the country. I must admit that before coming to the Turkish art scene, I often thought that most of the works of art in Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries were mostly about war and terrifying pictures of families in desolate.
I never thought that I would find a strong and growing base of female artists who were not only willing to redefine the narrative surrounding what people thought about the Middle East, but also what they knew about the roles of women and gender in their society.
I realized that most women who took part in this process were professionals who either were entering the industry or had been in it for a while. For example, I noticed that some of the galleries I visited were not only run by women but also owned by them. Most of the commentators and culture journalists I came across were also women of all lifestyles. A friend of mine once told me that there is a strong gender balance in the Turkish art scene compared to any other type of profession in the country.
He further told me that the voice of women in Turkey is exceptionally strong, despite the fact that they have been traditionally silenced by religious views on the role of women in the society, political views on sex, and social norms that have created an imbalance between the sexes in different aspects of Turkey’s social, political, and economic growth. Based on the increasing dominance of women in the art scene, it is important to say that this field is mostly purified of most gender bias issues that have characterized other professions.
There is also a growing pool of revered female artists in Turkey, which is making a name for themselves regionally and internationally. In fact, some people have attributed their growing influence of women in other aspects of Turkish social and political development to the pivotal role that women are increasingly playing in the Turkish art scene. Most of the women who have championed this progress have highlighted female issues in their oeuvres.
I had noticed this trend from my visits to different art galleries that different types of women who have focused on highlighting the issues between men and women developed this trend. Others have also taken it upon themselves to explore the place of women in Turkish society and in the wider Middle East region. Some have even taken a broader understanding of the same issue and strived to explore the place of gender, worldwide.
Some female artists depict themselves as feminists and their work mostly stem from such themes. Similar to the body of work created by female artists in the UK and the US in the 1970s that revolutionized how people see female artists; Turkey is doing the same because women are increasingly getting more attention in different fields of contemporary art. In other words, the different types of artistic work we see today in Turkey have created an unsusceptible and powerful space for female artists to express their views about different gender and women’s issues in the society. For us to appreciate the progress made by female artists in changing the dynamism of cultural and social issues in the Turkish contemporary art scene, it is important to note that in 1913, the Newspaper of the Ottoman Painter’s Association did not support female participation in the art (Atagok 24).
The same article was sexist, in the sense that it argued for the view that only men could be passionate enough to create significant works of art. However, as we have seen in this paper, towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, daughters from wealthy and middle-class households in Turkey were taught to develop different forms of art and consequently became less inhibited in their expression of artistic creativity. This revolution has paved the way for what we now see today as the reinvention of the female artist in the Turkish contemporary art scene.
Challenges facing Female Artists in the Turkish Contemporary Art Scene
Although we have seen the progress made by Turkish women in reclaiming their place in the country’s art scene, a myriad of challenges continues to face them. The lack of financial support tops the list of these challenges (Atagok 24). However, this problem is not only unique to them but to all artists in general. Indeed, most art galleries in Turkey are privately funded. Therefore, if an artist falls outside the realm of the funding outreach of these art galleries, it becomes increasingly difficult to benefit from it.
It is a shame that the government has done little to support the growth of the art scene in the country because it is not only required to protect the country’s heritage and Islamic culture (through art or otherwise), but also support the creation of the same. Going forward, education would be a key instrument for revolutionizing how the government and everybody else sees the art scene. Education would be important in raising people’s awareness about art in the Turkish scene and make more of them appreciate the work done by not only contemporary female artists but also other artists as well.
Indeed, as Isaak (9) observes, the state of women in the art space is not representative of the general art scene in the society because the consistent discrimination of women in this space is of concern to observers and female artists in general. Owing to this observation, it is indispensable for all stakeholders in the art scene to continue the struggle for equal rights and empowerment for women across the world (not only in Turkey). Nonetheless, at the same time, women need to continue working hard to get respect in the art scene because this value is not going to be handed to them freely, without earning it in the first place. In other words, female artists need to demonstrate that their work in the art scene is not a hobby, but a serious venture (a profession).
Conclusion
In this paper, we have seen that western criticism of Islamic culture focuses on oriental sexuality. The visual and verbal art in Europe has mostly affirmed this fact because most of the themes that underscore the development of these works include slave markets, eunuchs, polygamy, homophobia, and the likes. Most of the works of art accepted in the western world, or deemed popular in these places, often appeal to the quest, or need, for western audiences to understand the theme of sexuality in Islamic countries. Consequently, artists who have recognized this need, and are speaking to it through their works, get the most recognition in western societies.
However, it is important to understand that the shift has occurred because they are explaining gender, women, and human rights issues in their countries as foreigners, and not necessarily as locals. The divide between the East and the West has forced them to address this issue this way because most western audiences do not necessarily understand the intricate details of Islamic culture or the gender issues that continue to plague women in Turkey and other Islamic nations.
Therefore, they are forced to explain the same issues from a foreigner’s point of view, which happens to be the view of the west towards Islamic culture. Artists who have adopted this view of the gender issues facing Muslims in Turkey and the wider Islamic peninsular are mostly based in major European capitals, such as Paris and Italy. A couple of them are already mentioned in this report. Nonetheless, we cannot take away from them the progress that they have made in repositioning the place of women in the Turkish contemporary art world. They have played a monumental task of increasing the profile of women in this space by producing some of the best works of art people have seen.
They have also tackled the social issues facing Turkish women in unique and creative ways. Of importance is the theme of liberty and democratization of the art space, which has not only expanded the space for women to participate in art but also challenge traditional beliefs about gender in the Turkish art space. Nonetheless, the role played by women in liberalizing gender issues in Turkey and democratizing the art space is not a new phenomenon because, for a long time, women have also played an instrumental role in the liberalization movement in Turkey. Indeed, women have played an instrumental role in the liberalization of Turkey and several types of artwork have memorialized their accomplishments.
Compared to many “oriental” societies, Turkish art has been the most active in documenting some of the works or accomplishments of these women. Based on this assertion, it is pertinent to point out that women play an instrumental role in the Turkish art scene today. The trend is only going to increase considering Turkey is being recognized around the world as being the bridge between the East and the West.
Works Cited
Atagok, Tomur. “Contemporary Turkish Women Artists.” Paradoxa, vol. 2, no. 1, 1997, pp. 1-25.
Ersen, Leyla. Criticism of Orientalism by Contemporary Turkish Feminist Artists; Nil Yalter, Şükran Moral and Gülsün Karamustafa. Academia. 2013. Web.
Gulay, Ozturk. Handbook of Research on the Impact of Culture and Society on the Entertainment Industry. London: IGI Global, 2014.
Haddad, Yvonne, and Findly Ellison. Women, Religion, and Social Change. New York: SUNY Press, 1985.
Harris, Gareth. Turkish Contemporary Art: Part of the Country’s Transformation. Telegraph. 2010. Web.
Isaak, Joanna. Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Laughter. London: Routledge, 2002.