On the Not-Yet-Established Museums of a Non-Existing Painting: An Essay on the Museological and Visual Constraints of the Ottoman-Republican Periods in Turkey

Abstract

The modernisation that commenced in the nineteenth century also resulted in transformations in visual area within the Ottoman Empire. The transition from classical visual art production to perspective and figure painting was not a rapid or straightforward process. Conversely, this resulted in the emergence of significant and intricate challenges. The transformation in the visual arts was not confined to a single area (painting). Similarly, the reflections of innovation and change were also observed in the field of architecture. Accordingly, the late Ottoman modernisation developed largely in a visual manner. During this same period, studies in the field of museology were integrated with the inward-looking and hidden Orientalism that was prevalent at the time. The concept of archaeological museums, which emerged as a prerequisite for non-Western modernisation processes and was largely based on Orientalism, was superseded by museums of visual arts after a considerable period of time. This legacy was subsequently adopted by the new Republic regime. The concept of museology, which developed in accordance with the Western concept of painting, came into being at the end of the 1930s. Nurullah Berk's museum concept, which he realised with a modernist approach to classification, continued in the following periods. Today, the same approach is maintained in a significant portion of the museums that are said to be new, and there is no change in the museum concepts. In this article, the history in question, which is examined as a mentality problem, is addressed in parallel with the internal problems of the current concepts of visuality.