Turkish impressionism: interplays of culture and form

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781119373919.ch28

In a self-portrait, the Turkish artist Avni Lifij depicts himself holding a French book on art, an important visual clue as to the aspirations of the “1914 Generation” who introduced Impressionism to Turkey. Biographical information about the Turkish Impressionists reveals not only an affinity with Western culture based on schooling, but also a comfortable acceptance of the multicultural aspects of Ottoman society. The story of Impressionism in Turkey is an interplay of culture and form just as much as it is the case for all other Impressionisms around the world: a response to a sense of change within one's own cultural climate and an awareness of the present moment. This new awareness signaled new techniques for Turkish painting even at this early phase of its development, including attentiveness to light, the application of small, individualized daubs of paint, and experimentation with colored shadows rather than the infusion of dark tones to local colors.