Reflections from a Matt Surface

Abstract

The relatively short history of the modern art education in Turkey inevitably mirrors the constitutional predicaments that the young nation undergoes for nearly a century. The article aims to survey the pivotal implementations, starting from the early days of the Republic, and brings close together an evaluative reading about what has been done to keep the Turkish higher education in fine arts relative and up to date. Consequently, the main focus has been on and about the manifold complexities that arose as a result of such pitfalls like the absence—and in some cases, also the presence—of mandatory legislative frameworks, art's and art education's assumed role and promise in the university context and the both mutual and separate motives of academics and students in the field. It can be said that the symptomatic qualities put forward a set of associations in-between those issues, causing a similarity among the key problems. Most apparent of those are about to be on the difficulty of translation—from one expression, structure, history, modality, experience or body of knowledge into another. Thus, the futility and dulling caused by the widespread institutional and individual custom of metaphrasing could be identified as a core issue whereas the necessity to paraphrase and to contextualize gains critical urgency. The concept of artistic research discussed in this context is a possible mode of structuring and programming the art education itself that could, it is hoped, be antidotal to the existing alienating and anaesthetic practice—which becomes especially significant today in a public institutional education environment that is expected to assure a free, relevant and worthy higher arts education that still has a chance to avoid the distorting restraints faced extensively by the private sector.