Portrait of an Artist, the Howard Hodgkin sale at Sotheby’s, October 24, 2017
By Thomas Roueché | October 15, 2017
That Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) was an important collector of Indian Art is well known – not least from the frequent displays of his work internationally (two might be
Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, at the Ashmolean, Oxford; and
Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700, Opulence and Fantasy,...
Posted in
Fine Art, Islamic Art
Two shows that transcend the Beyoğlu doldrums
By Cornucopia UK | September 29, 2017
İstiklal Caddesi is one of those confounding urban space that can be a heavenly mix of history, vitality and culture, or a hellish experience stumbling over concrete slabs and construction sites, so it’s only appropriate that two exhibitions on the avenue explore the holy and the profane.
Behind Mt. Qaf...
By Cornucopia UK | September 22, 2017
Istanbul's 15th Biennial,
A Good Neighbour, arrives in a Turkey grappling with a particularly eventful two years. I’ve had the opportunity so far to see three of the six main exhibition spaces: The Galata Greek Primary School, the Pera Museum, and the Istanbul Modern. While it’s heartening to see so...
The horn maestro Radovan Vlatković returns to Urla for the 2017 UMA masterclasses
By Berrin Torolsan and John Scott | September 14, 2017
The great Croatian horn-player Radovan Vlatković is giving the first of this year’s masterclasses at the Urla Music Academy (UMA). Four days of happy music-making culminate in a concert at 7pm on Saturday evening (September 17). Tickets are free (and donations towards a wonderful musical project most welcome).
Okan Akbaş...
Posted in
Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
Heading for the Golden Horn to catch the rowing races
By Emily Arauz | September 8, 2017
The Balkan Rowing Championship takes place in Haliç this year on September 9–10. This will be a ‘Junior’ championship (18 and below). Consequently, the Haliç will be closed to the ship traffic for this event. Rowing races are ideally followed by bicycles or at the finish area but unfortunately following...
A revealing relief, must-try Turkish dishes and the perfect day in Istanbul
By Emma Harper | April 26, 2017
In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read over the past month (or two, in this case). A relief uncovered by chance in eastern Anatolia has led archaeologists to revise the history of Harput, reports
Hurriyet Daily News. Subsequent examinations...
Posted in
Archaeology, Culinary Arts, Film, Music & Performing Arts, Obituaries
By Cornucopia | April 20, 2017
Very sad news. The great John Freely passed away early yesterday morning. We have lost a cherished friend of the Bosphorus, author of more than 50 books, with at least 50 more ready to roll, and one of Irish nature’s great raconteurs. John was the incomparable bard of old Stamboul....
Posted in
Obituaries
David French, the former director of the British Institution at Ankara, who died on Friday (pictured right), was a leading figure in British archaeological research in Turkey for six decades. For just over a quarter of a century, he was Ankara Director of the Institute, then an exclusively archaeological body....
Posted in
Archaeology, Obituaries
An Anglo-Turkish moment: JF Lewis’s portrait (almost certainly) of the great Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson
By John Scott | March 17, 2017
This witty portrait by the Orientalist painter John Frederick Lewis can be found this weekend at BADA, the British Antique Dealers’ Association’s annual fair in Chelsea (March 15–21). In Guy Peppiatt Fine Art’s catalogue notes, the art historian and JF Lewis-expert Briony Llewellyn describes the sitter in Turkish costume as...
By John Scott | November 11, 2016
It was with enormous sadness that we learned of the passing of the great Byzantine historian Anthony Bryer. The funeral service was held yesterday at St Peter's Church, Harborne, in Birmingham. Professor Emeritus of Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, or simply Bryer, as he was known to all,...
Posted in
History, Obituaries
In conversation with the artist and cartoonist Cem Dinlenmiş about his exhibition ‘You’ll Know When You See It’ at x-ist
By Emma Harper | February 23, 2016
When it comes to recent developments in Turkey, sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. One of the best at finding the humour in what would otherwise make you weep is Cem Dinlenmiş, the artist and cartoonist whose weekly ‘Anything Goes’ (‘Her Şey Olur’) column in
Penguen pointedly...
From The Paper Diaries 2015, by Deborah Wargon
By Malika Browne | November 25, 2015
A work by Deborah Wargon at her recent Istanbul exhibition. Photograph: Monica Fritz In a house in Balat on a quiet street just past St Mary of the Mongols, a fish is pinned to the wall above a bed. ‘My friend, the owner of this house, tells me this house...
Posted in
Contemporary Art
By Victoria Khroundina | August 21, 2015
If you’ve been following the blog, you will know I have been travelling these past few weeks. Last weekend I finally got around to visiting Cappadocia, and out of all the places I have been to in Turkey this awed me the most. The otherworldly landscape peppered with fairy chimneys,...
Posted in
Nature, Photography, Travel
By Victoria Khroundina | August 14, 2015
If you want to get up close and personal with Turkey’s Mediterranean coast there’s no better way to do so than by boat. You can stay in a town such as Fethiye, Kaş, Kalkan or Antalya, and take daily boat trips or, better still, hire your own boat and spend...
Posted in
Modern Art, Photography, Travel
By Cornucopia UK | March 20, 2015
Joobin Bekhrad’s moving tribute to Yaşar Kemal in
Reorient magazine perfectly encapsulates the legacy the novelist left not only within Turkey’s literary history, but for storytelling in general. Bekhrad lovingly calls Kemal, who passed away last month, a ‘hero’. Writing the piece in his Toronto apartment, Bekhrad is surrounded by Kemal’s...
Posted in
Literature, Obituaries
A tribute by Andrew Finkel
By THE CORNUCOPIA BLOG | July 9, 2014
I walk most days past Aslanyataği Street in the Cihangir neighbourhood of Istanbul – which translates as the Lion’s Den. It is a tiny loop of an alleyway and I know it better for a particular building called Jones Apt which was home to the Mango family, scions of the...
Posted in
Obituaries
‘Shah Abbas’ Gifts to the Serenissima’ exhibition
By Cornucopia UK | March 19, 2014
A fascinating exhibition on display at the Chamber of the Scrutinio in the Doge’s Palace in Venice traces the history of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Venice and the Safavid Persia under the rule of Shah Abbas the Great (1587–1629). The show specifically highlights the gifts exchanged between the two powers...
Posted in
Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, Fine Art, History, Islamic Art
The scholar and archaeological explorer who restored the frescoes of Ayasofya in Trabzon
By Cornucopia | January 12, 2014
During the eight and a half decades of his life, David Winfield, who died a few months ago on the island of Mull, was by turns a writer on architectural aesthetics, possibly the leading restorer anywhere of Byzantine frescoes, a skilled conservationist who was the National Trust’s first-ever national Surveyor...
Posted in
Obituaries
By David Barchard | December 10, 2013
Osman Streater, who died on November 22, might have seemed to be simply the ultimate London gentleman, a Chairman of a London Club, a leading figure in City PR, an amusing but always well-informed conversationalist, and unfailingly polite and courteous, with his ironic sense of humour kept just a little...
Posted in
News, Obituaries
By John Scott | August 26, 2013
What appeared to be a cousin of this chap (photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) dropped by for tea in Yeniköy yesterday. Perfectly good manners. Enjoyed a walnut. Could any reader explain what on earth it was doing on the Bosphorus? Our friendly black squirrel sported an elegant patch of white...
