User:GGT/Art in Northern Cyprus

Art in Northern Cyprus is based upon the artistic practice of the Turkish Cypriot community on the island.

Early developments
The first Turkish Cypriot artist to hold an individual exhibition was İsmet Güney in 1948.

1974-1984
Visual arts in Northern Cyprus have been growing since the late 1970s. In 1978, the Society of Visual Artists (Görsel Sanatçılar Derneği), was established, marking the first real attempt to promote visual arts in the community since 1974. This society allowed networking between the artists and encouraged them to exhibit their work, despite the fact that there were no dedicated exhibition venues at the time, meaning artists had to exhibit their works in schools, hotels and sports halls.

The 1980s are described by Cevdet Çağdaş, an artist who was one of the founders of the society, as "a period of stagnation, nonetheless with occasional interesting activities". This was a period in which identity politics were prominent in the Turkish Cypriot community. Some art publications were launched in this period. Kıbrıs Sanat Dergisi ("Cyprus Art Review") was published in 1981 and 1982, with the first issue in September 1981. It was seen by Çağdaş as "a vehicle for representing Turkish Cypriot identity". Çağdaş had some of his writings published by the society in 1982 as a book, with the title Sanat Yazıları ("Writings on Art"). Kültür-Sanat Dergisi ("Culture-Art Review"), sponsored by the Turkish Bank, was first published in 1985 and became a relatively long-living, respected publication, closing down in 2003. This journal did not only provide written material about the art scene but also contained reproductions of visual works, drawings and poetry.

A notable exhibition during this period was the 1982 exhibition Kıbrıs Türk Resim ve Heykel Sanatında Dün-Bugün ("Yesterday and Today of Turkish Cypriot Art and Sculpture"). This included more than a hundred works by thirty artists. Esra Plumer Bardak views this as "testament to the prolificacy of artists as well as a nationalistic drive to establish a Turkish Cypriot identity". In Sanat Yazıları, Çağdaş called upon art scholars from Turkey to come and write about the state of Turkish Cypriot art in the light of this exhibition, evaluating "the level they have reached".

"Golden age" in the 1980s and problems in the 1990s
Faced with a growing interest in and production of art but no venues dedicated to it, there were calls at this time to establish a dedicated art space and even a public art museum. Whilst the museum did not come to be established, 1984 saw the opening of the Atatürk Cultural Centre (Atatürk Kültür Merkezi) in Nicosia, constituting the first dedicated space for culture. Çağdaş wrote that this ushered in a "golden age", leading to a higher quality artworks from a greater number of artists.

This was followed in the 1980s and 1990s by the opening of a number of private art galleries. Fluxus Gallery was opened in 1988 by the Fluxus Group, which defined itself as an "artistic protest group that sought to raise public reaction with their activities". The gallery closed down in 1991, but was the first art space to host installation and performance artworks, influencing the up-and-coming artists. This group also criticised the political situation in Northern Cyprus. Another private gallery was the Vision Art Gallery, opened in 1995.

HP Gallery was opened in 1991 in Haydar Pasha Mosque, Nicosia, following the restoration of the Gothic historical monument. This was an individual enterprise by Rezan Nevzat, an architect. Her direction saw the gallery host a number of "high-quality" exhibition in the 1990s. Investment in the arts, however, saw a drop in the late 1990s, making privately owned spaces unsustainable due to financial pressures, including the rental costs. HP Gallery closed in 1998. During this period, the lack of institutional support for art was a sustained problem.

There were also some art spaces owned and operated by individual artists. Ayhan Menteş ran the Mentesh Art Gallery between 1985 and 1995. Şinasi Tekman operated a studio which also served as an exhibition space from 1997 onwards. Aşık Mene opened the Bellapais Art Gallery in Bellapais, Kyrenia in 1997.

The 1990s also saw the emergence of the first dedicated arts programme in the Turkish Cypriot community. Gün Işığı ("Daylight"), later renamed to Sanat Güncesi ("Art Journal") was a regular show on BRT hosted by Hakan Çakmak, running from 1991 and 2015, with a total of more than 700 episodes. It featured interviews with artists, critics and curators, as well as an overview of important exhibitions and events. The selection of events had to be rather limited due to the running time of the show. Çakmak himself was involved in the wider artistic life of Northern Cyprus, writing in the publication Kültür-Sanat Dergisi. Having trained in Turkey, he based his show on the likes that he had seen on the TRT, but also involved Cypriot artists in the decors, set design and the design of the opening segment. He also noted that the initial name of the show, "Daylight", represented a "naive idealism to let art guide the society as light would guide us in the right path to enlightenment", and in this vein classical music was featured during depictions of visual art. Çakmak later thought that this was an "overly idealistic and populist" take on art. Esra Plumer Bardak notes that by the virtue of having to select which artists to feature, Çakmak's show became a "critical platform for forming a mainstream", as evidenced by the fact that several artists featured multiple times on the show. In the 2010s, she notes that "a contemporary generation disrupt[ed] the usual format [...]by changing the tone and the environment of the dialogue". Other artistic programmes have been broadcast on Turkish Cypriot TV, but Sanat Güncesi is seen as the most respected one.

21st century
Early 2000s saw the formation of new artistic societies, such as the European Mediterranean Arts Association (EMAA), founded in 2002. This association organised exhibitions, training programmes and workshops.

A new space called Sidestreets (Ara Sokaklar), functioning as a gallery and a cultural centre, was established in Nicosia in 2007 by Anber Onar and Johann Pillai. Based on discussions between Onar, Emin Çizenel and cultural manager Rana Zincir, a review of published sources and individual archives was conducted. This led to an exhibition titled Untitled History in 2008, showcasing a variety of items from Turkish Cypriot art history. These included logos designed in a competition for the never-realised Sarayönü Fine Arts Museum (Sarayönü Güzel Sanatlar Müzesi) project, the poster of Hussein Chalayan for the Venice Biennale and posters from multiple exhibitions. The exhibition material was not preserved in the form of a publication or a catalogue.

More experimental artworks, following contemporary art in the world more closely, began to flourish in this period. In 2013, a collective of fifteen Turkish Cypriot artists (without a collective name) organised an exhibition titled Happening at Sidestreets. This one-night exhibition featured performances and interactive multimedia installations. Plumer Bardak notes that this is "a new generation of contemporary artists who have been actively taking issue with the conditions and environment of living in Cyprus".