From Mekteb-i Sultani to Galatasaray Lycee

Opened on 1 September 1868 upon the orders of Sultan Abdülaziz, while Mekteb-i Sultani was conceived as a training ground for bureaucrats who would staff the state's newly-designed agencies, it was thought that its students should be inculcated in the ways of international diplomacy and European culture. Among the lessons that were included in the curriculum with this idea in mind were European art and literature and it was due to their influence that major artists emerged both from Ottoman-period Mekteb-i Sultani and from Republican-period Galatasaray Lycée. Because of the role that they played in the initial formative stage of painting among the Ottomans, the art instruction provided at Mekteb-i Sultani, the instructors and their artistic personalities, as well as the artists who studied there are all matters of importance. The primary aim of this exhibition was to draw attention to an attitude towards education which, for over a century in the years from 1868 to 1968, upheld strict standards of quality, fostered an undying love of art from generation to generation, and transformed that love into professionalism. The foreword of the exhibition catalogue is written by Candan Erçetin. In addition to the works of Galatasaray artists, the catalogue includes impressions from Paris since most graduates went to Paris to develop their art.

Date of Publication: 2009
Number of pages: 311
ISBN: 987-975-9123-56-7