The Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s (SSM) latest exhibition to celebrate its 15th anniversary “Feyhaman Duran. Between Two Worlds” presents the artist’s technique that carries traces of the country’s transformation from the Ottoman Empire into the Turkish Republic, also reveals all the clashes and the developments of the era. The exhibition reflects the influences that shaped the art of Duran, who left an empire on the brink of collapse to arrive at the home of art in Paris and returned back to a country in revolutionary transformation.
Duran, greatly influenced by impressionist movement during his Parisian education, took up the habit of carrying his canvas to various spots across the city to just sit back and paint. Duran’s landscapes of Süleymaniye, Bosphorus and Istanbul’s islands, provide a comprehensive glimpse of Istanbul’s history. His work in the province of Gaziantep as part of the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Nationwide Journeys documents the ideological structure of the era while revealing the extent of his talent through his use of various techniques quite different from those he uses in Istanbul.
Throughout his artistic life, Duran articulated his inner experience of amalgamating the East and the West through his paintings. Due to the demand for portraits in the early Republican years, he has been mostly known for his work in this style but he was equally proficient in other styles such as still-lifes and landscapes. In addition to his portraits, the nudes he painted during his education in Paris, landscapes in various regions and still-lifes where he used Ottoman calligraphy as objects in his compositions, are included in the exhibition to present the artist’s full potential to all visitors.
Feyhaman Duran, an executive at the Ottoman Painters Association, became a first-hand witness to the social transformation taking place in the country with his portraits of leading politicians of the Republican era, from Presidents Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and İsmet İnönü to reformist Education Minister Hasan Âli Yücel. Still, he never completely severed his ties to the traditional Ottoman arts and life style. Coming from a long line of poets and Ottoman calligraphers, his use of calligraphy in his compositions and still-lifes attracted significant attention. The compositions of the Topkapı Palace Museum’s miniatures onto the canvas, which was commissioned by the Istanbul Maritime Museum when it was first founded, and his landscapes also at the Topkapı Palace Museum demonstrates the artist’s interest in the history and the art scene of the Ottoman Empire.
The exhibition includes samples of 19th century Ottoman calligraphy understood to have been left to his wife Güzin Duran by her grandfather, the famous calligrapher Yahya Hilmi Efendi, beautifully composed inscriptions by the artist and his wife’s calligraphic pictures. The portraits, which form a substantial part of the exhibition, are presented with a short biography of the subjects to provide visitors with a more comprehensive look to the era. Some parts of the Beyazıt home the artist shared with his wife Güzin are presented in the museum in a style to depict the daily life and the studio of the artist. It is the first time Feyhaman Duran, whose work and life show how deeply he was attached to tradition, is subject to such a comprehensive exhibition. The large sample of works chosen from the artist’s own collection, with additions from SSM’s collection, present a detailed look into the career of this very important artist who witnessed and shaped many of the turning points in the history of Turkish art.
