Istanbul: Two worlds, one city | Stambul Dwa swiaty jedno miasto
International Cultural Centre, Rynek Główny 25, 31-008 Kraków
9 May – 2 September 2018
The only city of its kind – the place where two continents are brought together and where two worlds meet. The only century of its kind – the time when the institution of sultanate was in decline, the republic was being born, and modernity was just about to revolutionise the old ways of life. The only story of its kind – a captivating narrative made from an assemblage of photographs, paintings, postcards, and posters. This splendid exhibition in Krakow’s handsome Ravens House is the perfect excuse to hop onto the next plane to Krakow, which is exactly what Cornucopia is planning to do: watch this space.
The energy and innovation of Istanbul in the mid-19th to the mid-20th century fascinated Polish artists, who went to the city in search of inspiration. The ICC Gallery features the works by Istanbul’s leading early photographers such as James Robertson. The core of the display comprises photographs, postcards and posters from the Suna & İnan Kıraç Foundation collection. In addition there are postcards and images from Piotr Nykiel’s personal collection, Oriental paintings and drawings by Jan Matejko, Jan Ciągliński, Stanisłąw Chlebowski, Wacław Pawliszak, Félix Ziem, and Marian Mokwa from the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Krakow, as well as Regional Museum in Toruń.
Polish-English catalogue
Date of issue: 2018
Volume: 24 x 28 cm
Pages: 348
978-83-63463-75-5
Istanbul – “the pearl of the Orient” and “the city of all cities” – has inspired fascination and imagination for centuries. It was visited by Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, and Alfred Hitchcock. The 1883 launch of the luxurious Orient Express brought a growing number of guests from all over the world. Today, the city has its greatest admirer in the Nobel Prize winning writer Orhan Pamuk, who provides an unmatched portrait of its mysterious melancholy.
What can we learn today from the history of Istanbul’s modernity recorded in old photographs? This bilingual Polish-English catalogue tells the story of the city’s increasingly European features at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, about its transformation into a modern metropolis, as well as about the consequences of these processes. It features more than 200 photographs and postcards from Istanbul’s Pera Museum collection, which amounts to over seven thousand pictures. The publication in complemented by reproductions of art works by Jan Matejko, Kazimierz Pochwalski, Marian Mokwa, Jan Ciągliński, and the court painter of Sultan Abdülaziz – Stanisław Poraj Chlebowski, all of whom were charmed by the exceptional beauty of the city on the meeting point of two continents.
The catalogue features also Piotr Nykiel’s extensive essay on the Turkish route towards modernity, and Bahattin Öztuncay’s essay on the origins and development of photography in Istanbul. Of particular interest is Beata Nykiel’s text on the forgotten Krakow family of Henryk and Ludwika Groppler, whose Bosphorus-based home housed a “cultural embassy” that supported Polish artists visiting Istanbul, including Mickiewicz, Matejko, Styka, Sienkiewicz, and others.
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