Sakıp Sabancı Museum's new exhibition, The Prince's Extraordinary World: Abdülmecid Efendi
The Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum, with the support of Sabancı Holding, is hosting an exhibition called "The Prince's Extraordinary World: Abdülmecid Efendi," which focuses on the life and art of Abdülmecid Efendi, a prominent Turkish painter who was also interested in calligraphy, music, and literature. The exhibition, which runs from December 21, 2021, to May 1, 2022, brings together art lovers and features 60 paintings and over 300 documents, including 14 official institution collections, 17 family collections, private museum and gallery collections, and a 1926 self-portrait from the Musee Massena Collection in Nice, France, where Abdülmecid Efendi spent the last 20 years of his life. The exhibition also includes two original framed paintings that Abdülmecid Efendi gave to Pierre Loti from the Museum House in Rochefort.
In addition, the exhibition consists of a scientific research section called "Abdülmecid Efendi Beyond the Visible," which features six works from the SSM collection and examines Abdülmecid Efendi's painting technique, the restoration of his works, and the materials and conditions of his artistic production in collaboration with Sabancı University, Koç University, and the Istanbul University Faculty of Forestry.
"We believe in the inclusive and unifying power of art and the hope it spreads"
At the meeting held for the exhibition's opening, Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper stated: "At Sabancı Group, we are proud to be pioneers and examples in economic and social development, including culture, art, and education. Art represents our most important values, and we will always prioritize it in all of our endeavors. Our group's desire to share the values of our country with a wider audience continues with the support of the Abdülmecid Efendi exhibition. I would like to thank the Sakıp Sabancı Museum for making this exhibition possible and congratulate our museum, which will turn 20 in 2022, for enriching our country's art world and bringing beauty to the world through art.”
"Commemorating Abdülmecid Efendi with a never-before-seen selection"
Nazan Ölçer, the director of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, said: "We are absolutely delighted that the Sakıp Sabancı Museum will be hosting such an extraordinarily versatile artist, Prince Abdülmecid Efendi. Abdülmecid Efendi, the first son, born during Sultan Abdülaziz's reign, experienced his father's tragic death at a very young age and never forgot it. He spent about fifty years of his life as a prince, four years as a crown prince, sixteen months as a caliph, and twenty years in exile. Throughout his seventy-six years, he witnessed three regimes: absolutism, constitutionalism, and republic, and experienced two world wars.
As the last heir apparent and the last caliph of the Ottoman Empire and the first and only caliph elected by the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Abdülmecid Efendi personally witnessed the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and its history. He was undoubtedly one of the people most affected by significant military and political events, but we see that he was always a benevolent father and grandfather. In addition to his identity as a painter, he was interested in music and calligraphy and supported intellectuals and artists from the Ottoman dynasty and beyond. He lived as a Turkish intellectual who was open to the West while being loyal to his religion and tradition in the face of East-West and tradition-modernity dilemmas. In this exhibition, we commemorate Abdülmecid Efendi, a modern-age prince who blended East and West with a selection of exceptional works, many of which have been brought together for the first time, focussing on the versatile art of the Prince. In our exhibition, we will examine Abdülmecid Efendi's relationship with literature and music, his close friendships with intellectuals and artists of the time, and his painting. For the first time, we will see three mist paintings inspired by Tevfik Fikret's poem, side by side. We will also showcase landscape paintings that he gifted to his close friend Pierre Loti and explore Abdülmecid Efendi through more than 300 documents, including his letters, family photos, some of which have never been shown, and many menus, including an invitation given by his close friend Abdülhak Hamit at the premiere of a play by Finten. The exhibition will be accompanied by compositions executed by Abdülmecid Efendi's father, Sultan Abdülaziz, who also created the palace's first comprehensive painting collection. We invite all art lovers to our museum to get to know this extraordinary Prince better."
The exhibition "The Prince's Extraordinary World: Abdülmecid Efendi" can be visited at Gallery -2 at the SSM until May 1, 2022, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on weekdays and from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm on Saturdays."