The rupture in visual language:

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1150166 (Table of Contents)

The shift of arts from conventional forms of canvas-painting and sculpture to collage, ready-mades, installations and performances as it had occurred in the history of western art follow a linear and natural unfolding in parallel with sociopolitical evolvements. In the case of Turkish visual arts, this kind of a transformation projects to the time period between 1960s to 1990s where the face of arts change not smoothly but rather in the form of a 'rupture' as new tendencies are embraced, practiced, applauded and exhibited; substituting the traditional forms of art-making in Turkey. The hypothesis, while seeking the possibility of naming this transformation as a 'rupture', runs in order to single out the contributions of significant women artists of the period, Füsun Onur, Ayşe Erkmen, Canan Beykal, Gülsün Karamustafa and Nur Koçak; whose visibility, active participation, production and unique artistic style happens to conquer the scene. Discussed within the western understanding of concept and conceptual art, and also through the sociopolitical environment of Turkey during the particular time period; these women artists, who are categorizing their works as 'conceptual' or themselves for that matter as 'conceptual artists'; appear as the most remarkable figures active in the years especially between 1970 and 1980 naming the era as one turning point in the history of Turkish Visual Arts, where fine arts in Turkey move out of the canvas and converge to 'conceptuality' as new subject matters, forms and concepts are integrated within the artistic representation and composition.