Artists in Their Time

Istanbul Modern’s collection exhibition, "Artists in Their Time", focused on how artists position their work and themselves within the concept of time. It suggested a conceptual field for examining, and reconciling, the links between an artist’s time and societal, cultural, natural and universal time. It united artists from very different periods, geographies and disciplines around common themes.

"Artists in Their Time" took as its starting point the words of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901-1962), one of Turkey’s foremost intellectual and literary figures: "I am neither within time nor completely outside of it." Tanpınar’s views about time illuminate the process by which artists come to terms with the relationship of their work with the past, the present and the future. Accordingly, this exhibition grouped together works of art from distinct geographies, periods and disciplines that share the same emotions with respect to a variety of themes: the intersecting responses of abstract art from different periods; the role of materials and studios in the production of art; the transformation from landscapes and still lifes to the present conception of nature; the search for identity; attraction to the Higher and the spiritual; existential questioning; body politics; feminist approaches; the complex problems imposed by the new urban culture; the struggle against war, death and destruction; life stories from Istanbul, a metropolis defined by water and embracing the sea; and efforts to understand the people of Anatolia.

Artists: Fahrelnissa Zeid, Aliye Berger, Semiha Berksoy, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Cihat Burak, Adnan Varınca, Avni Arbaş, Cafer Türkmen, Naile Akıncı, Aziz Albek, Nejad Melih Devrim, Neşet Günal, Gökşin Sipahioğlu, Adnan Çoker, Turan Erol, Ara Güler, Albert Bitran, Burhan Doğançay, Ömer Uluç, Erol Akyavaş, Yıldız Moran, Yüksel Arslan, Atilla Torunoğlu, Tülay Tura Börtecene, Devrim Erbil, Georg Baselitz, Mehmet Güleryüz, Hermann Nitsch, Sarkis, Nil Yalter, Neş’e Erdok, Burhan Uygur, Nur Koçak, Komet, Seyhun Topuz, Koray Ariş, Anselm Kiefer, Gülsün Karamustafa, Balkan Naci İslimyeli, Richard Wentworth, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Azade Köker, Fatma Tülin, Şahin Kaygun, Erdağ Aksel, Kemal Önsoy, Barbara & Zafer Baran, William Kentridge, Canan Tolon, Coşkun Aral, İnci Eviner, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Bedri Baykam, Handan Börüteçene, Tayfun Erdoğmuş, Julian Opie, İrfan Önürmen, Jennifer Steinkamp, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Canan Dağdelen, Selma Gürbüz, Hale Tenger, Kutluğ Ataman, Mark Bradford, Aydan Murtezaoğlu, Manuel Çıtak, Gül Ilgaz, Merih Akoğul, Michael Raedecker, Pae White, Liam Gillick, Ekrem Yalçındağ, Vahap Avşar, Murat Germen, Mustafa Horasan, Ferhat Özgür, Ramazan Bayrakoğlu, Monica Bonvicini, Taner Ceylan, Olafur Eliasson, Doug Aitken, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Margherita Manzelli, Gülay Semercioğlu, Murat Akagündüz, Haluk Akakçe, Hüseyin Çağlayan, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Ali Kazma, Servet Koçyiğit, Nuri Kuzucan, Şener Özmen, Vahit Tuna, Sterling Ruby, Tomas Saraceno, Fikret Atay, Cevdet Erek, Ebru Uygun, Elliott Hundley, Matt Saunders, Nilbar Güreş, Seçkin Pirim, Ali Alışır, Murat Pulat, Ardan Özmenoğlu, Burcu Perçin, Burcu Yağcıoğlu, :mentalKLINIK

Curators: Levent Çalıkoğlu, Birnur Temel

Exhibition Publication

Artists in Their Time exhibition book

Published in Turkish and English, the collection catalogue for "Artists in Their Time" presented, along with texts on artists and their works, two articles by Ahu Antmen, art historian and critic, and Handan İnci, literary historian and expert on Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. Through the context of time, Antmen focused on modernization in Turkey, and interaction between generations and their coming to terms with one another. İnci, on the other hand, presented a biographical account of Tanpınar with references to the notion of time as reflected in the author’s work.