Art in the service of the modernization discourse: A Case Study of Ottoman paintings from the late Empire to Republic

With Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in the 19th century and the Ottoman military defeats, modernization was set as a priority in the agenda of the empire. This turning point was the third conflict between the two worlds, Islamic and western which faced the Muslims with this question that what is the reason for their military and scientific backwardness. In order to fix this backwardness, the Ottoman adopted Western modernization patterns with the Priority of military modernization and establishment of military academies. Therefore the first Academy of Fine Arts was founded in 1883 in Istanbul. The present study in addition to familiarization with modern Ottoman art, tries to answer these questions: What is the specific discourse of modern Ottoman art? And how is it manifested in paintings. Hence, the circumstances of the Ottoman Empire from the 19th century until the establishment of the Republic are studied and works of prominent Modern Ottoman paintings are analyzed. The results show that the discourse of modern art in Ottoman Turkey has close ties with the modernization discourse. Modernization discourse in the Ottoman Empire is equivalent to the "Westernization". In the field of art education it represents adoption of Western styles and transmission of collective art activities from court workshops of military schools and then to Academy of Fine Arts. With the establishment of new art institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul in 1883, learning Western-style modernism became institutionalized as the most striking example of modernism. In addition, emergence of women images, documentary landscape paintings depicting urban and rural modernization and adoption of modern styles could be considered as other impacts of modernization discourse on Ottoman painting.