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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Various evaluations have been made about the women artists of today who have demonstrated their creativity in the plastic arts in the Republic of Turkey in which the woman was designated as a person who produced in an artistic world. In the discussion of woman's place in the artistic world in Turkey prior to the Republic, it is commonly held that the 15-year-period that extends from the Second Constitutional Period (1908) to the proclamation of the Republic (1923) was both an important era for westernizing efforts and a preparatory time for women artists. The development of the subject is generally seen as connected with the social and political events of the period and the education system.
Examining the infrastructure that provided for its formation shows that the "first" step in fine arts education for women, aside from private education, supports the genesis, was taken nearly 90 years ago in 1914 with the founding of the Girls' School of Fine Arts. It is essential that the importance of this first step and its place in education from the institutional point of view as well as student potential at the beginning and the individuals who had potential be scrutinized. However we have only limited information about the students of the Girls' School of Fine Arts. The information is limited since today that generation is no longer alive and an important part of the registrations connected with the school were destroyed in a fire. Just as we couldn't get complete fists related to registrations, we can't say that we have comprehensive information about the professional lives of the students whose names could be obtained through their education institution. So it is possible that a small detail that could be added to what is still not known about these students will be able to play a part in ensuing analyses.
Our purpose is to offer new biographic information not previously known about the students to the academic world and with this data determine the place that the students at the Girls' School of Fine Arts obtained in the women's art world; it will also shed light through a number of new evaluations related to the Turkish woman's socio-cultural evolution and place in society.
Key Words: plastic arts, Girls' School of Fine Arts, Turkish women artists, art education, girls 'school, Galatasaray Exhibitions.
Introduction: New Schools for Girls in the Ottoman Education System in the Second Half of the 19th Century
Information related to efforts to modernize the education of Turkish women came on the agenda as the westernization movements in the Tanzimat (Reformation) Period (1839-1876) gained speed. Ottoman intellectuals and high-level bureaucrats of the Tanzimat re-evaluated the education of women in terms of creating a desirable new society as part of preparatory education, and consequently place was provided for the establishment of the Ebe Mektebi (Midwife's School) (1842), the Rusdhiye (Girls' Grammar School) (1858) and the Kiz Sanayi (Girls' Arts School) and Darulmuallimat (Girls' Teacher Training School) (1870) (Tekeli, 1985, p. 468). It is understood that despite all the innovative thoughts from the Tanzimat to the II. Mesrutiyet (Second Constitutional Period)(1908), girls' education was restricted to girls' teaching training schools and girls' art schools. Establishing a higher-level educational institution for girls was only achieved in the Second Constitutional Period. On this topic the first initiative occurred with the opening of the Inas Idadisi (Girls' Preparatory School) in Istanbul in 1911. The school began continuing education under the name of the Inas Sultanisi/Bezmialem Valide Sultanisi (Girls' Secondary School) in 1913-1914. Following that first step, the Erenkoy, Camlica and Kandilli Sultanisi were founded. (1) From the point of view of the secondary schools established in the capital, as well as the other schools mentioned, there was continuity; however, in the provinces outside the capital, they weren't widespread. The period of education at the girls' secondary schools was specified as ten years. The girls' secondary education institutions opened in the provinces became five-year Girls' Teaching Schools.
For girls the possibility of higher education began with the opening of the Inas Darulfunun (Girls' High School) in the 1914-1915 educational years. Given this new undertaking at the same time as the Balkan War, the lectures and private classes established in the Darulfunun for girls must have played an important role (Dolen 1985, p. 476). When the Inas Darulfunun began providing education in a separate building, the old Law School in Cagaloglu, there were a total of 25 students in the three main sections which included literature, mathematics and the natural sciences (Tekeli--Ilkin, 1993, p. 98). The first graduates of the school, that had a three-year educational program, emerged in 1917. The Inas Darulfunun was eliminated in 1921 when the girls took their own initiative and boycotted their own classrooms and started to work the boys' classes.
Inas Sanayi-i Nefise (The Girls' School of Fine Arts) and the Circumstances Surrounding the Establishments
November 1, 1914 is accepted as the date for the establishment of the Girls' School of Fine Arts (Halil Edhem, 1970, p. 43). The school began 31 years (1883) after the School of Fine Arts offered Turkey's first official fine arts education for male students. A long time after its founding, it merged with School of Fine Arts/ Academy of Fine Arts in 1925. (2) Therefore, a long time passed during which the need for fine arts education for women was considered and action taken. A situation similar to this delay was experienced in the development of the Academie Beaux Art in Paris, France; it was only in 1897 before girl students were accepted at this school which has a long history (Goren, 1996, p. 100).
The year 1914, when the Girls' School of Fine Arts opened, political history in the Ottoman Empire is taken into account; it was a quite complex period when freedom movements were alive and well and the Empire had entered World War One (October 16, 1914). On the other hand one learns from publications of the time that women of the Second Constitutional period (1908) frequently used such concepts as "freedom and equality" vis-a-vis men. These stirrings continued during the year the Girls' School of Fine Arts was founded and over the ensuing years. Within this process in which political and economic relations were drawn together with the artistic and culture relations between the Ottomans and the West, one understands that reverberations of the women's rights, written into law in Britain and France, were gaining importance (Beykal, 1983, p. 6).
In the artistic world in 1914 Turkey, an interesting intersection occurred and a period began during which an important departure point would be experienced. This period is known today as the "Generation of 1914" or the "Calli Generation." When the Turkish artists who were being educated in Europe returned home upon the outbreak of World War One, they contributed to the educational and artistic atmosphere. Among these artists who had been sent to Paris in 1910 after winning the "Europe Examination", that had been opened at the School of Fine Arts were, Ali Sami (Boyar), Hikmet (Onat), Ibrahim Calli, Nazmi Ziya (Guran) and Mehmet Ruhi (Arel) (Tansug, 1986, p. 120). Avni (Lifij) and Feyhaman (Duran) who were supported by Prince Abdulmecid and Abbas Hilmi Pascha and Namik Ismail who acquired an art education by his own means were all members of the same artistic group.
An important event, a short time before the date mentioned, is that the Turkish painter artists had united within the framework of a professional association, "Osmanli Ressamlar Cemiyeti" (The Ottoman Artist Assocciation). In the formation of this new organization in 1909 were names like Avni (Lifij), Feyhaman (Duran) and Namik Ismail who would later have places in the Generation of 1914. Mihri (Musfik) Hanim who would take up a position in the Inas Sanayi-i Nefise cadre and Mufide Kadri who was one of her students also were among the members of this association (Baskan, 1994, p. 27).
Osmanli Ressamlar Cemiyeti's magazine was the publication of the association; it first appeared on January 20, 1911 and was closed on July 14, 1914. Negative circumstances resulting from the war was one of the reasons for discontinuing the publishing of the magazine. The magazine that was to have appeared with the important endeavors and contributions of the Generation of 1914 is informative about the different formations in the artistic world.
The Girls' School of Fine Arts' Teaching Cadre and Lessons
After Salih Zeki Bey held the position of director of the Girls' School of Fine Arts that had been established in the middle of the war for a short time, Mihri Hanim was appointed to the position. (3) She had received a private art education in Turkey (4) and then was educated in Rome and Paris; prior to this position she had been the painting teacher at the Darulmuallimat (Girls' Teacher Training School) (Toros, 1988, p. 43). Omer Adil took over the directorship of the...
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