"In search of the modern
Letter from Istanbul
Kathimerini Greece | Spyros Payiatakis - Kathimerini English Edition
ATHENS
Turkey in general, though perhaps not Istanbul in particular, was not a place that was terribly familiar with modern art until recently.
A week ago, shortly before EU members were to meet in Brussels to debate on the most significant issue facing the bloc - Turkey's accession to Europe - a modern art museum named Istanbul Modern, located in a former warehouse used in the past by the Istanbul Port Authority, was inaugurated by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
'Among all the peoples of the region, we've had the strongest cultural exposure to the West over the centuries,' says Oya Eczacibasi, the museum's director. 'That's why we have a much stronger tradition of modern art.' As a predominantly�Islamic country, Turkey had to face the religious ban on representing living beings in art. Painting 'a la West' didn't start in the Ottoman Empire until the mid-19th century, and it only flourished after the republic was founded by Kemal Ataturk in 1923."
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