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...etkinlikleri plastik sanatlarin sadece seksen yil gibi kisa bir zaman dilimi icinde gelisme olasiligi buldugu gorulur.
Cagdas yasama ayak uydurmasi ve bir kac yuz yillik kultur ve egitim farkinin acigini kapatabilmesi Kibris Turk toplumu icin cok kolay bir surec olmamakla beraber, 20. yuzyilin ilk yarisi icinde tum ekonomik sikintilara ragmen buyuk bir hamle ile bir cok guclugun ustesinden gelmeyi basarir ve 20. yuzyilin son ceyreginde her yonuyle bir toplum ortaya cikar. Plastik sanatlar alaninda sayilari erkek sanatcilarla esit duruma gelen Kadin sanatcilar da 21. yuzyilin bu ilk yillarinda Kibris Turk toplumunun cagdaslasma surecinde gosterdigi asamalarin en onemli simgelerinden biri olur.
Kibrisli Turk Kadin sanatcilarin toplum yasamina katkilari cok fazla olup, meslek yasamlarina hemen hemen ilk once egitimci olarak baslayip, sanat etkinlikleri de bunun paralelinde devam eder. Uluslararasi etkinlikler yaninda Kibris probleminin cozumune katki amaciyla duzenlenen iki toplumu yaklastirici kulturel etkinliklerde yer almalari yonleriyle de girisimci kisikleri ile taninirlar. Yine Kibris'ta sanat etkinliklerinin tarihcesi de bu konulara isik tutmasi acisindan yazida ele alinacaktir.
Sanat ve kulturun gelismesinde devletin ve ozel kisilerin himayesi gerekli bir olgu ise de ekonomik nedenlerle bu destek kisitli olur. Buna karsin bu yuzyilin icinde cok sayida Kadin hem sanat egitimi hem de sanatci olarak etkin olur ve yurt ici oldugu kadar yurt disinda da isimlerini duyururlar. Yirminci yuzyilin ilk yarisinda sanat egitiminde Kadin ogretmenlerin onemli katkilarina karsin, sanatci sifatiyla Kadinlarin tek baslarina eserlerini sergilemeleri mumkun olmamis, ancak 1960'lardan sonra bu tur etkinlikleri gerceklestirebilmistir. Bu makalede Kibris Kadininin sanatla olan iliskilerinin baslangici ve sanat etkinliklerinin tarihi sureci irdelenip, gunumuzdeki cagdas toplum imaji icindeki katkilari gosterilmeye calisildi. Ayrica sanat egitimi ve sanat ortamina katkilari ile taninan sanat alaninda calisan kadin sanatcilardan onde gelenler yaninda cagdas sanatta gelisim cizgisini tamamlayip, yeni cagdas akimlar cercevesinde kendi ozgun usluplarini yaratma denemeleri ile de daha ilk gunlerden itibaren isimlerini uluslararasi sanat etkinliklerinde duyurmaya calisan bazi genc sanatcilar yaninda heykel sanatindaki basarilari ile isimlerini duyurmus kadins sanatcilar ele alindi.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Kibrisli kadinlar, Kibrisli sanatcilar, Kibris Turk Sanati, kadin sanatcilar, sergiler, resim sanati, seramik sanati, heykel sanati.
Abstract
Art in the sense of a Western style is a rather new concept for the Turkish society. This idea is not more than 8 decades old considering that the beginning of art education dates back to the 1920s. Although women played an important part in art education alongside the male teachers, women artists managed to exhibit their works only after 1960s. Turkish Cypriot women artists adapted themselves to the Western style and managed to catch up with the new trends in the modern art. This was only achieved after gaining the right to attend university by means of upgrading of the level of the girls" secondary schools to lycee in 1952.
This article will introduce the early art event that women artists were involved in and also some brief biographical information about the leading protagonists at the moment among Turkish Cypriot artists. Although painting was the main concern of the women artists, recently, some women achieved success in sculpture and ceramic arts. These artists also played important roles in the art education of the country for many years. It is pleasing to see that although political problems had always affected the life of every individual of the society with the embargoes applied on North Cyprus, artists took a rather active part in international exhibitions and in the activities of conflict resolution groups for the benefit of the whole island while conveying the message of peace, friendship and solidarity in the context of joint exhibitions or exhibiting individually in Cyprus or abroad. They are the symbols of modernity of the society.
Key Words: Art, artists, exhibitions, Cypriot women, Cypriot artists, Turkish Cypriot art, women artists.
Introduction
Women had always played an important role in the evolution of art throughout the history although they usually remained anonymous in their efforts. Although it is believed that women have contributed greatly in the creation of art objects, mainly in the ancient ages (Morris, 1985, p.16; Ehrenberg, 1989, p. 10), this talent was lost with the invention of the turning wheel for ceramic production and other technical equipment. However, they continued to contribute to their environment with handcrafts such as embroideries, laceworks, weaving, or basket-making as the products of their silent, patient characters. Their creativity only changed in parallel to the rise of the level of education. Currently there is no difference between artistic creativity of women and men in general.
The part of Turkish Cypriot woman's success in art and literature has increased during the last two decades and it is believed that the stages it had passed through is now worth to be recording at the beginning of this new millennium. To understand this development and also the role of women in this case, it is necessary to research the outputs of a century, particularly the conditions and events that initiated the first impulses for the evolution of the contemporary art in the Turkish Cypriot society.
The struggle of Turkish Cypriot woman to achieve an equal position with man started in the 20 century during the British Colonial period. Although at first glance, it could be considered as the result of Western Civilization introduced to the island through British Rule, it was in fact the result of a close follow-up of cultural improvements implemented in Turkey with the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, as well as, the rights gained in modern Western countries.
As a result of the reforms in education and certain aspects of culture, Turkish Cypriot women, like their Turkish and Western counterparts, are celebrating achievements gained in a revolution nearly eight decades old. They almost have an equal share in the cultural life of the society as both creators or spectators. Therefore, the subject of this paper focuses upon the role of women in the evolution of art and culture in the Turkish Cypriot society and their contribution to the formation of a modern society. This was achieved by overcoming gender differences, particularly in education and the cultural environment, whereby women developed art and other cultural activities due to the efforts in art education. Although art occasions remained within the limits of school exhibitions, during the earliest period, of the cultural and social reforms that took place during the years 1900 to 1975, this was in fact a preparatory stage. It became apparent that although the achievements of this era seemed to be rather slow, in reality it diffused to a rather successful era in the last quarter of the 20th century.
It is clear that in order to be able to write the history of Turkish women artists, it is necessary to understand the level of education of the whole society without accounting for gender differences. However, a previous published paper (Yildiz, 2003) already deals with the achievements in art education. Therefore, this paper discusses the evolution of the modern art and the role of women artists in comparison with the case of the male artists, as a continuation of the study on the history of modern culture in Turkish Cypriot society. Therefore, the part of women artists in the survey of enlightenment of the Tukrish Cypriot culture with their indefatigable struggles to achieve universal creativity and production is presented in the study.
Sources for the Study of Modern Turkish Cypriot Art
Although the 20th century is the most documented era of Cyprus history for the study of women themes, documents are scanty as it is the common fate of many societies. It is also well known that, entire documents about well-known women or their achievements had been written by men (Ehrenber, 1989, p. 10). For this reason, it is not possible to find the biography of any woman recorded in the history books or other documents of those years. History of art books also deal with monuments or art created by men, while art created by women such as pottery making, embroideries or textiles usually remained anonymous. Although the situation is improving due to new attempts towards writing a history of women in Cyprus civilizations (See Pyrgos, 1993; Yildiz, 2002, pp.79-116), it could be said that there is presently little material published about contemporary women artists (See Olgun (ed.) 1988; Yildiz, 2000. pp. 79-116; Yildiz, 2001. pp. 1-42). However, this is similar for male artists.
Publications on the social history of Turkish Cypriots to date are mainly about political matters. There are only a few publications about its cultural history particularly dealing with contemporary art, and these are printed after the 1980s. The recent technical multi-media facilities mainly web-pages contain again insufficient information on the topic. A recent source is the web-page entitled as Cyprus History and Culture including contemporary art and reference to the names of contemporary Turkish Cypriot artists with some illustrations, though within the limit of the subject it also lacks enough information. (1)
The information for this paper was collected mainly from newspapers, sociopolitical texts emphasizing the Cyprus problem, memoirs and documents provided by some women artists as well as exhibition catalogues.
Publication of memoirs was not very common in Turkish society particularly of women. However, recent publications of biographies and memoirs are increasing in number and shed more light on the happenings and social life of the first half of the 20th century. The biographies, autobiographies and memoirs about political leaders are rather disappointing for our study since they usually represent political problems or biographies with no discussion of art or cultural heritage. Although almost all of the past political personages were honoured with the opportunity of delivering a speech at the inauguration of art exhibitions, there is no reference of these occasions in their memoirs. (2)
With the memoirs of intellectuals such as journalists or authors, the hope of collecting information about women artists in their writings ended with disappointment since the concept of "art" was limited to the literature and the performing arts such as theatre or music. Virtually no biography or autobiography about women artists has been published so far except our previous detailed study about Ozden Selenge (Yildiz, 2001, pp. 1-42), the well-known artist and author.
Publications by some of the artists are literary works such as poetry, short stories or novels, which they usually consider only to be merely fictional products. Newspaper or journal articles about art occasions and artists are not adequate sources for this type of study since they are simply interviews or news about the inauguration of the exhibitions with no intellectual perspective of any art critic of an academic background. Hitherto, they are important sources to understand the evolution of the cultural background of the society.
The first book about Turkish Cypriot art (Olgun (ed.) 1988) was published with the coordination of Ergun Olgun, an art connoisseur entitled Section of Turkish Cypriot Painting. The book did not include much information about the artists. The presentation of the brief biographies and illustrations showing a couple of their works were arranged like any ordinary exhibition catalogue. However the "Foreword" by Ergun Olgun and three short articles by Ahmet Ustat, Emin Cizenel and Mene are important sources as comprehensive information about the development of Turkish Cypriot art from the 1940s to the 1980s. Women artists from the early generations who were involved in painting are presented in the book.
Catalogues of collections and exhibition are also important sources for the study of contemporary art. Two recent publications by the Ministry of Culture and Education and the National Assembly of TRNC contain illustrations of the oeuvres of mainly the well known Turkish artists in the collections of these two institutions. The first one of these catalogues published by The National Assembly of TRNC in 2000 is the first catalogue of an art collection in North Cyprus. The book was intended to present the art collection of the House of National Assembly and thus it merely illustrated a series of paintings and a few sculptures with simple captions. Unfortunately in the written text in Turkish, English and French the history of the Turkish Assembly is narrated, and there is nothing written about the art or artists of Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC). Also, there is neither a logical order for the arrangement of the paintings, nor any list of the artists or art works illustrated in the book. Therefore, as the title suggests, it cannot be considered as a complete catalogue of a collection but merely a selection of art pieces. The second catalogue (3) published recently is depicting the collection of the Ministry of Education. This collection seems to be formed through the purchases of the ministry mainly from the Annual State Art Exhibitions. However, the catalogue includes works from earlier years starting from 1934 to 2000. The pictures are selected from the works of earlier years in the first part, and the others are the works that were awarded with prize. The table included at the back of the book is summarising the awards given for the occasions of The Annual State Exhibitions and the name of the works purchased from each exhibition. Also,...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
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