Exhibit focuses on Istanbul through archive of 3 generations of artists

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – A new exhibit focuses on Turkiye’s Republican era arts scene through the lens of three generations of an artist family based in Istanbul, the organizers said on Tuesday.

Memento Istanbul: Hristoff Family Archive is based on objects including photos, paintings, and personal belongings that a three-generation artist family has amassed over the decades, said Yapi Kredi Culture and Arts Publishing in a statement.

The exhibit sheds light on the history of the timeless metropolis as well as the family and can be visited from March 31 to Aug. 1 at Yapi Kredi’s building in Istanbul’s teeming Beyoglu district.

Curated by third-generation, Istanbul-born Peter Hristoff, Elif Erdogan, and Yesim Demir Prohl, the show includes objects collected from the Hristoff family archive, as well as paintings from Istanbul museums and collectors such as the Pera Museum and Rahmi Koc Museum along with Yapi Kredi, Nur and Selcuk Altun, Omer M. Koc, Emel and Bulent Korman, and Aysegul and Omer Ozyurek.

The section on the family's ties to the art scene of Turkiye’s early Republican era also features works by prominent Turkish artists such as Aliye Berger, Ibrahim Calli, and Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu.

The family archive began with the photos of Peter Dimiter Hristoff, who came to Istanbul from Bulgaria in 1923, and documents the cosmopolis in the 1920s and ‘30s, the statement added.

This collection was started by Hristoff himself, who was at the center of the art scene in the early years of the republic, and was continued by his son Dimiter and his grandson Peter, according to the statement.

The common point for the Hristoff family, whose members are painters but also make prints, has always been Istanbul.

“Three generations of artists of the family produced their works by being influenced by the history, culture and people of Istanbul,” the statement added.