Congeries beyond Categories: Approaching the Complex Actuality of Art Practices in the Early Turkish Republic

Abstract

AbstractThis article investigates the incoherence of art practices in the early Turkish Republic using the example of the variations present in Malik Aksel’s (1901–1987) work. The article starts from three conventional angles and then branches out along Aksel’s specific trajectories. It inquires into his relationship to a) the modernization processes in Ankara, b) the Art-Craft Department, the state institution at which he had been employed as an art teacher, and c) Europe, where he studied for four years in preparation for his position at the Art-Craft Department. The inquiry relies only on tangible traces of these relationships. In doing so, it recovers fragments of the complex actuality of creative practices, and identifies layers of what specifically the abstract notions of modernization, the institution and the state, as well as Westernization, actually covered in the case of this artist. These fragments also steer the investigation towards facets of Aksel’s work that the established notions do not encompass. With this approach this article seeks to supplement the prevailing reception-oriented studies on art in the early Turkish Republic and to contribute to the critical discussion of the methodological implications of art-historical research that expands the traditional disciplinary confines. The aim is to open avenues to recognize and account for art practices, or facets of them, that do not relate to the preserved, processed, and easily accessible art histories, thus aiming for an extended, more inclusive art historiography.