Izmir Arkas Collection is currently holding a “window” themed art exhibition. It is between 17.03.2023 and 23.07.2023, at Arkas Art Center. Personally, as an artist myself, I’ve been looking forward to going to this exhibition since April, and finally, I got the opportunity to go and observe the exquisite masterpieces displayed there.
When you enter there, security asks you to lock your bag in the cabinet at the entrance. They have a “no bags allowed” policy. But they allow phones in the exhibition. You can buy an audio narration from the entrance for about 10-15 Turkish liras, but I wanted to observe the place without the audio narration and research the things that I didn’t know myself.
The place has 2 floors, and both floors are used for the current exhibition. I went to the “Picasso: Show Art Exhibition” back in 2019 and I think that they use the place extremely efficiently every time an exhibition is held. They display a copy of one or two art pieces on the wall of the staircase and the paintings on the walls are put in a lovely order, the spaces between the paintings aren’t too narrow or wide and they used limited space that they got extremely efficiently.
In this exhibition, you can find all kinds of paintings: hyperrealistic, surrealistic, the ones painted with oil paint, or watercolor, and mostly oil paint. As I was looking at the paintings, I also looked at what kind of paint the artists used while making those paintings. And honestly, it was surprising not to see any acrylic paintings there. I expected at least maybe one or two acrylic pieces, but there were none… Paintings were mostly made with oil paint.
On the second floor, approximately half of the pieces were landscape paintings. And normally, landscape paintings don’t really draw my attention, but I really appreciated the attention to detail and perspective in the landscape paintings.
Most painters were from the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. And they gave extreme attention to detail, which really made the paintings reflect what the artist was trying to make the viewer feel. As I was going through the paintings, I could feel the gloom according to the toning and the details in those paintings.
Now, I want to mention my favorite pieces and painters in the exhibition.
I think the most successful artist in that whole exhibition was Josef Theodor HANSEN (1848-1912), he had SO MANY details in his paintings that no matter how close I got to the painting, my eyes hurt trying to see every single detail. His paintings looked like photographs, taken by the best camera and the best cameramen. I know hyperrealism doesn’t draw the attention of some people that much but as a person who is HUGE fond of hyperrealistic paintings, I could say his paintings were the best ones I saw so far. I even took a photograph of one of his paintings, showed it to my friends, and asked them where that photograph was taken, and they didn’t even notice that the picture was a painting, they thought it was a photo from a museum in Venice, Italy. You can see one of his paintings in the picture below.
He also had a painting which was the view of the Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral Notre Dame in Rouen. That was also one of the most exquisite paintings and it clearly was a work of visionary brilliance. You can see it in the photo attached below:
Hansen only had 3-4 paintings at the exhibition, but his work was extremely impressive.
Now, I want to mention my favorite pieces.
My favorite piece in the whole exhibition was this painting by Paul Gustav FISCHER (1860-1934). It is almost like I hear the girl playing the piano and I don’t know if it is the use of colors or the way he blended them or the details but something about this painting just gave me a peaceful feeling… At the exhibition, I just felt the need to stand in front of this piece and just look at it for some time. It is a true masterpiece from my point of view, and it is my current favorite piece in the exhibition and in general.
This painting by Carl Vilhelm HOLSOE (1863-1935) was also one of the best in the whole exhibition in my opinion. The attention to detail in the form of the fabric and on the light reflecting on the plate on the table is just fascinating.
“Young Girl at a Window” by Jean Baptiste GREUZE (1725-1805) was also an enchanting piece to look at. Although the artist used dark tones throughout the painting, the soft shining look in the girl’s eye just makes the viewer feel cheerful inside.
Lastly, I must mention this piece by Édouard Frédéric Wilhelm RICHTER (1844-1913), there are so many details in this painting that the viewer needs to look at several times to catch every event happening in the painting.
There were a lot more of these enchanting paintings, but I don’t want to spoil them all. In my opinion, this exhibition is a milestone for all the artists who want a chance to observe paintings made by successful artists in real life. So, if you have even a slight interest in art, I recommend you go and view this exhibition before the 23rd of July!