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Osman Hamdi Bey and the Americans

Archaeology | Diplomacy | Art

October 15, 2011 - January 8, 2012

Based on the intersecting lives of painter, archaeologist and museologist Osman Hamdi Bey, American archaeologist and photographer John Henry Haynes, as well as Prof. Hermann Vollrath Hilprech, the exhibition focused on the first excavations American archaeologists conducted in Ottoman lands -Assos and Nippur- and the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The exhibition, curated by Prof. Renata Holod and Prof. Robert Ousterhout from the University of Pennsylvania, showcased for the first time a rich selection of paintings by Osman Hamdi Bey, archaeological photographs and drawings from the 19th century, letters, travel journals, and archaeological artifacts. This unique selection was on loan from the University of Pennsylvania, Fine Arts Museum Boston, İstanbul Archaeological Museums, İstanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture, as well as private collections. Apart from his lesser-known paintings, two unknown works of Osman Hamdi Bey discovered at the Penn Museum were also introduced to visitors.

Exhibition Catalogue

Osman Hamdi Bey and the Americans

Osman Hamdi Bey and the Americans

Based on the intersecting lives of painter, archaeologist, and museologist Osman Hamdi Bey, American archaeologist and photographer John Henry Haynes, as well as Prof. Hermann Vollrath Hilprecht,...

Video

Midnight Horror Stories: The Last Ferry <br> Galip Dursun

Midnight Horror Stories: The Last Ferry
Galip Dursun

I remembered a game as I was waiting in the passenger lounge for the ferry to arrive just a few minutes ago. A game we used to play at home when I was young, in my country that is very far away from here, a relic from the distant past; I don’t even remember how we used to play it. The kind of game that makes me feel a thousand times lonelier than I already am among the crowd waiting to get on the ferry.

Souvenirs of the Future

Souvenirs of the Future

You try to remember the future. A bird painted on the ceramic panel in a historical palace has found its place on the wall. The tiles of a church and a mosque have been painted on canvas. The pattern of a centuries-old ceramic plate appears before you on a velvet curtain.

At the Order of the Padishah

At the Order of the Padishah

In this piece, Żmurko presents an exotic image of a harem chamber, replete with gleaming fabrics and scattered jewels, as a setting for the statuesquely beautiful body of an odalisque murdered “at the order of the padishah”.