Sakıp Sabancı Museum
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The Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum is a private fine arts museum in Istanbul, Turkey, dedicated to calligraphic art, religious and state documents, as well as paintings of the Ottoman era. Sakıp Sabancı, deceased member of the second wealthiest dynasty in Turkey founded the museum in 1998, which was opened in June 2002. Aside from permanent exhibitions, the museum also hosts national and foreign temporary exhibitions and, at weekends musical events take place here. It is open to public every day except Monday.
The museum building, also known as the "Equestrian Villa", is situated in Emirgan on the European part of Bosphorus and was the residence of Sabancı family until 1999. Today, the museum is part of Sabancı University.
In November 2005 the Museum became the first in Turkey to host a solo exhibition for a major Western artist, when it unveiled an exhibition of the works of Pablo Picasso.
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[edit] History of the mansion
The historical building belonged to several high ranked pasha families and khedives, Egyptian governors, from 1848 until 1884, when it was purchased by the Ottoman Treasury on the orders of Sultan Abdülhamid II and presented as a gift to King Nicola I of Montenegro. The mansion served the next 30 years as a royal residence and embassy of Montenegro. In 1913, the Ottoman government repossessed it, which became home to the granddaughter of Sultan Mehmed V Reşad. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Prince Mehmed Ali Hasan, grandson of Khedive İsmail Paşa, purchased the then derelict house and commissioned the architect Edouard de Nari to build the present house. However, it remained unused for many years until the elder sister of the Egyptian prince made it her home in 1944.
In 1951 Hacı Ömer Sabancı, father of Sakıp Sabancı and founder of Sabancı Holding, purchased the mansion for spending summer months with his family. Inside the entrance gate of his mansion, he placed the bronze statue of a horse, he purchased at an auction. The sculpture was designed by Louis Daumas in Paris in 1864 and casted by Vor Thiebaut. The house became popularly known as Atlı Köşk (Equestrian Villa). He and his family lived in the mansion until his decease in 1966. The mansion was home to Sakıp Sabancı and family between 1969 and 1999.
The mansion was leased in 1998 for a period of 49 years to Sabancı University along with all the antique furnishings and art collections. Today, the original mansion and a modern gallery annex host extensive art collections of 19th and 20th century.
[edit] Exhibits
[edit] Permanent exhibitions
- Hacı Ömer Sabancı began collecting decorative art works consisting of figurines, metalwork, porcelain, objets d'art and furniture in 1940. Sakıp Sabancı expanded the art collection of his father since 1970. The collection includes 18th and 19th century Chinese porcelain Famille noire and Famille verte , polychrome vases and decorated plates. An impressive collection of 19th century French porcelain, including large numbers of Sèvres vases, and German porcelain produced in Berlin and Vienna are among the most valuable items in the collection.
- The collection of calligraphy consisting of nearly 400 pieces offers a comprehensive view of Ottoman calligraphic art over a period of 500 years, with manuscript Korans and prayer books, calligraphic panels, decrees, imperial documents, declarations, imperial seals, poetry books and calligraphic tools.
- More than 320 selected paintings of Ottoman and Republican era belonging to Sabancı painting collection are on display, the works of notable Ottoman and Turkish artists like Osman Hamdi, İbrahim Çallı, Halil Paşa, Nazmi Ziya, Şeker Ahmed Paşa, Fikret Mualla and European artists like Fausto Zonaro and Ivan Ayvazovsky who lived and worked in the Ottoman Empire, either independently or as court painters.
- Items memorizing Sakıp Sabancı as pictures taken with personalities and statespersons, decorations and medals and some personal belongings are also on show.
[edit] Temporary exhibitions
- "Picasso in Istanbul" was the title of the ever first temporary exhibition featuring a collection of 135 pieces of paintings by Pablo Picasso never put on show before. There were 20 paintings selected by the artist's grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso from different periods that the Spanish master kept for himself and were part of the private collection of the Picasso family. Other pieces came from the Picasso museums in Barcelona, Málaga in Spain and Paris, France. The show also featured sculptures, ceramics and textiles as well as photographs taken by Picasso, and photographs of the artist taken by famous photographers. The show, held from November 24, 2005 until March 26, 2006, was visited by more than 250.000 people.
- The second notable temporary exhibition at the museum was dedicated to Auguste Rodin with the title "The Master Sculptor Rodin in İstanbul", featuring selected artworks by the great master of the art of sculpture. 203 artpieces were on display from June 13, 2006 to September 3, 2006, which were loaned from the Musée Rodin in Paris, France.[1] The show hosted Rodin's masterworks as The Thinker, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, The Monument to Balzac, The Walking Man, statues derived from the famous The Gates of Hell composition and nearly a hundred other sculptures in marble, bronze and plaster as well as 58 drawings, 23 archival photographs and 19 antique-style statues from Rodin's private collection. With the permission of Rodin Museum, visually-impaired people were able to touch 14 statues having labels with the Braille alphabet. The bronze horse statue in the front garten of the museum, which gave the mansion its name since 1952, made temporarily place to Rodin's The Monument to Victor Hugo on the occasion of the exhibition.[2]
- The Museum's third major temporary exhibition, which will be held between December 7, 2006 and April 8, 2007, is dedicated to Genghis Khan in conjunction with the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Mongol Empire.[3] Titled "Genghis Khan and his Heirs - The Great Mongolian Empire", it will show 600 pieces from major museums in Germany, Austria, Mongolia and Turkey, some of which will be seen by the public for the first time.
