editorial

Art and Societies

Dr. Kubilay Akman

Art is always one of the most influential sectors in the societies. The power of images, words and works of art could be stronger than anything else in the society. When we look at through this perspective, the artists are responsible of what they do or do not do. Art is a palace, a refuge, a prison, heaven or hell every now and then. I am sure that readers or artists could match these pretty abstract words with the right samples from their own life experiences or from the art history. While art has a valuable position in societies, every institution and individual should ask to themselves, whether they do their best for progression of the art world. more...

article

One Among Several – The Traditional Gaze Seduced:

Toward A More Complex Understanding of Eros in Modernism

Dr. Gerry Coulter

The exhibition Eros in Modern Art can be read in a number of ways. A straight-forward content analysis would reveal that the vast majority of art works on display (around 93%) were made by men. Among these works one could also make a strong case that the presence of works such as Renoir’s Elongated Nude, Renoir’s Flying figure or Van Dongen’s Young Girl are classic examples of the traditional male/patriarchal gaze of Western art as it exerted its influence on modern artists. It might even be possible to make a feminist inspired case that a significant number of the works on display are products of that gaze. more...

article

The Mortal Photographs at The Divine Altar

Dr. Kubilay Akman

American photographer Joel-Peter Witkin (Brooklyn, New York, 1938) provides tiring images with the lightest expression. We are coming face to face with the complicated problematic clew on life, death, art history, religions, body, pain and pleasure while watching his works of art. As my Spanish colleague Joan Fontcuberta stated (the editor of Photovision magazine) in this quarter century the world transformed from the “absurd” age into the “horror” age. Certainly the contagion of American style extremenesses through mass media has a big role about this transformation. We do not surprise to the new more...

article

Barcelona and Its Contemporary Art Struggle

Maria del Carmen Chirinos

Despite the constant flow of artistic initiatives in Barcelona, one does not have the feeling that something big is just about to happen, but the certainty that too many ideas converge at the same time without having an accurate vortex. In fact, after taking a look at Barcelona’s architecture, art galleries and street art, visitors get the strong impression that the city’s contemporary art personality remains in some stage close to adolescence. In an attempt to change such view, the Loop and Swab contemporary art fairs, both private and young initiatives, intended to promote the evolution of the contemporary art market in Barcelona. Even though these fairs were not able to more...

article

Jasper Johns and His Ordinary Things

Bilge Aydoğan

As a painter, sculptor and printmaker, Jasper Johns (1930 - ) is one of the best-known American’s post-abstract expressionist. His familiar iconic symbols were hailed as essential progenitors of Pop Art and Minimalism. He had his first one-man exhibition in 1958 at the Leo Castelli Gallery and during the year 1961, his picture named “Gray Numbers” won the International Prize at the Pittsburg Biennale. He became famous in the art world almost overnight.With the description of Kirk Varnedoe: “He is given a grand moment in he sun as the man who comes on the stage in order to slay the demon more...

interview

The Painter Beyond Borders

Interview with Zak Smith

"There is a great deal of optimism, among artists and public institutions that fund art, about moving between media. I think however, the best stuff in any medium is great precisely because it shows you something in a way only that medium can do. For example, most crappy airport novels read less like things meant to be read alone quietly by people in chairs than like film scripts waiting to happen. The sentences are lists of shots rather than someone enjoying what can be done only in words. It's the same way so much installation art looks like..." more...

interview

From Neşe Erdok’s Objective

Interview with the Modern Turkish Painter Neşe Erdok

Cem Altınel

"No one who has a sterilized life can paint. I have lived as some kind of a monk, that is true. I have been on my own, I have neither been to a lot bars nor to the restaurants. I have not had quite a few friends; but no one can call it a sterilized life. This is actually something an artist uses to turn in on him/herself. Artists need some kind of loneliness in order to think, to be in deep meditation. Marguerite Duras says “Everyone should watch his own well hole.” The inherent is crucial! Burhan Uygur, for instance, has an extrovert life and scandals. This is not strange; he has not got these scandals in his paintings." more...

art agenda

santralistanbul Pre-opening Exhibitions

İstanbul, 11- 26 July 2007

Pre-opening Exhibitions are realized with the collaboration of three leading contemporary art institutions from Europe: CENTRE POMPIDOU – Contemporary Perspectives , ZKM – Touch Me İstanbul, MUSAC – An Interpersonal Journey. It will be open at 26 July. more...

art agenda

Dali & Film

London, UK Until 9th September 2007

One of the most enjoyable exhibitions of the Tate Modern could be seen until 9 September: Dali&Film. Salvador Dalí (1904–89) is one of the most famous and notorious artists of the twentieth century. This unprecedented exhibition brings together more than one hundred works by Dalí, more...

art agenda

Venice Bienale 52nd International Art Exhibition

Venice, Italy 10th June-21st November 2007

The 52nd International Art Exhibition from La Biennale di Venezia, entitled Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, takes place in Venice from June 10 to November 21, 2007. The director of the 52nd International Art Exhibition is the American curator, critic and artist more...

art agenda

Yevgeniy Fiks / Communist Party USA

Moscow, Russia 24th May 2007

Yevgeniy Fiks was born in Moscow in 1972 and has been living and working in New York since 1994. At the core of his work is the critique of post-Soviet identity politics. His work often departs from historical research and is usually approached through analytical, conceptual, or interventionist more...

art agenda

Meir Gal: Longing for the Ghetto

Tel Aviv, Israel 1st June- 30th June 2007

Meir Gal’s one person show at Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art is the second part in a series titled “The Story of Israeli Art”. The first part was shown in 1995 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. In this show Meir Gal continues to survey and document the writings of numerous writers, more...

art agenda

The La Caze Collection / Paintings

Paris, France 26th April-7th September 2007

In 1869, the Louvre received the most fabulous bequest in its entire history! This was the year that the exceptional collection of 583 paintings acquired by Dr. Louis La Caze (1798–1869) joined the museum’s holdings. This bequest included some of the greatest masterpieces of French and European more...

art agenda

Orlan: Le Récit

Saint-Etienne, France 26th May-26th August

Orlan’s Retrospective will tale place from 26th May to 26th August 2007 at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, the greatest retrospective ever organized on the artist’s work ; “ORLAN: Le Récit.” It is the opportunity to pay homage to the artist on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, more...

art agenda

Jeff Koons: Hulk Elvis

4th June-27th July 2007

Gagosian Gallery has opened Jeff Koons's new series of paintings, Hulk Elvis. These large paintings burst with energy and precision yet mystify with their complex permutations and combinations of figurative and abstract elements. A charged mix of inflatable monkeys, geishas, birds, The Incredible more...