Oriental Man News Today

Voiceover this is bbc news. We will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. As an art critic and ajournalist, ifeel like a very lucky man indeed, because i get to spend tonnes of time inside museums, places ive loved ever since i was a boy. And during my working life, ive witnessed something astonishing how radically theyve changed. The days of museums as grand, intimidating treasuries for dusty objects are long gone. Theyre becoming much more d...

of cultural exchange between east and west. im starting at the pera museum, once an exclusive hotel in the heart of istanbuls diplomatic district. i cant think of anywhere else quite like it, a unique, privately run museum, with a collection exploring the relationship between east and west — a centuries—long exchange that culminated in a controversial art movement known as orientalism. im here, though, to find out how people in turkey feel about orientalism today. for art historian...

Museums, i believe, are really having a moment, and thats what i want to explore. This is amazing. So this is his studio. I can walk around, can i . He was painting the orient within the orient. When you see my work, you can easily link the concepts, lets say, or the technique, anything from them, as inspiring. I think thats rather wonderful. Im in istanbul, that great, entrancing, ancient megalopolis, once the capital of the byzantine and ottoman empires. Lying on either side of the bosporus st...

museums, i believe, are really having a moment, and thats what i want to explore. this is amazing. so this is his studio. i can walk around, can i? he was painting the orient within the orient. when you see my work, you can easily link the concepts, lets say, or the technique, anything from them, as inspiring. i think thats rather wonderful. im in istanbul, that great, entrancing, ancient megalopolis, once the capital of the byzantine and ottoman empires. lying on either side of the bo...

Can you just tell me a bit more about the artist, because hes a really important figure here in turkey? yes, he was important because he did lots of things in arts and culture. he was a museologist and he was the head of the first art school. he was an archaeologist and he wanted to become a painter. i guess the big picture idea is that he actually travels to paris and he encounters painting there including, of course, orientalist painting by european artists, which inspires him. and when he ret...

Yes. yes, exactly. can you just tell me a bit more about the artist, because hes a really important figure here in turkey? yes, he was important because he did lots of things in arts and culture. he was a museologist and he was the head of the first art school. he was an archaeologist and he wanted to become a painter. i guess the big picture idea is that he actually travels to paris and he encounters painting there including, of course, orientalist painting by european artists, which inspires h...

When he was in paris, people saw him as an orientalfigure. so he was the best man to paint these subjects. so his calling card, if you like, was, "if you want orientalist pictures, "well, im an oriental man. "im the guy to do it." yes. lets talk about the actual picture itself. whats going on? theres this figure associated with music whos really contemplating a group of tortoises at his feet. some people think that these tortoises are representing the bureaucracy, which is difficult to change, s...

Baris, this is a really imposing painting, which i think im right in saying comes from towards the end of osman hamdis life, right? yes. yes, exactly. can you just tell me a bit more about the artist, because hes a really important figure here in turkey? yes, he was important because he did lots of things in arts and culture. he was a museologist and he was the head of the first art school. he was an archaeologist and he wanted to become a painter. i guess the big picture idea is that he actuall...