‘Dream and Reality’ celebrates a century of Turkish famale artists

The works of women artists from Turkey who have left their mark on the last century are being celebrated with an exhibition and a lineup of events in the coming months. You can catch ‘Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey’ at the groundbreaking Istanbul Museum of Modern Art until Jan. 22

For an exhibition of influential, yet largely forgotten women artists, you couldn’t pick a much more symbolic name than Hayal ve Hakikat (Dream and Reality).

The title first belonged to an 1891 novel co-written by acclaimed writer and journalist Ahmet Mithat and Fatma Aliye Topuz, a lesser-known figure even though she was one of the first female novelists in Turkey. The first part of the romantic story, Dream, was written by Topuz, while Reality was penned by Mithat, a division of labor not reflected in the credits: The book’s cover listed its writers as Ahmet Mithat and “A Woman.”

Today, Hayal ve Hakikat is the name of a new exhibition at the groundbreaking Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (also known simply as the Istanbul Modern) that celebrates the works of 74 women artists who have left their mark on Turkey over the past century. As Levent Çalıkoğlu, Istanbul Modern’s chief curator and one of the curators of the exhibit, puts it, Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey is “a comprehensive anthology from early beginnings to the present day.”

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)