A. A. KORITSKY

Our sobkor in Turkey

S. A. KORITSKY

Press Attache of the Russian Embassy in Turkey

Russian-Turkish cultural ties are taking on new forms and are now becoming one of the main areas of cooperation between the two countries. Russian artists representing the Russian diaspora in Turkey also contribute to strengthening the bilateral cultural dialogue.

The Russian school of painting is well known and loved in Turkey. Here they admire the works of I. K. Aivazovsky. A story about the Turkish period of his work has long been an integral part of excursions to the Dolmabahce Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve in Istanbul.¹ The city on the Bosphorus also captured the famous Russian miniaturist of the XIX century I. D. Zakharov, now undeservedly forgotten in his homeland. Director of the museum Prof. Ilber Ortayli, speaking about the Topkapi Palace, does not fail to recall that it was Zakharov who opened the first Russian art exhibition in the history of Turkey in Topkapi Walls in 1849. Numerous and diverse meetings with Turks inspired new themes for K. P. Bryullov, which he embodied in the canvases "Harbor in Constantinople", "Turchanka", "Love Date", "Dance among Swords".

In the early 20s of the last century, the Turks became more familiar with the Russian school of painting. Among the White immigrants who settled in Istanbul, there were many artists who quickly created their own society. In 1921. they organized an exhibition where their works were presented. Nikolai Perov became the chief artist of the State Opera and Ballet Theater in Ankara. And the portraits and landscapes of Nikolai Kalmykov-Nuri Kalmukoglu with Turkish citizenship-are still well known to Turkish art connoisseurs today.²

"TURKEY - A COUNTRY FROM A FAIRY TALE"

It is not surprising that the vernissages of our compatriots living in Turkey today are held there with constant success. The Russian Embassy in Turkey, our Consulates General in Antalya, Istanbul, and Trabzon, and the representative office of the Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) in Ankara pay great attention to this important component of the Russian-Turkish cultural dialogue. Art exhibitions of our compatriots in the embassy have already become a good tradition-

* Topkapi Palace, the center of power of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th and 19th centuries. Here, 25 sultans and their courtiers lived and ruled in indescribable luxury. In 1854, Sultan Abdul-Majid I moved to his new residence, the Dolmabahce Palace. In 1923, with the establishment of the republic, the Topkapi Palace, like other palaces, was declared a museum by order of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

they always attract the attention of local art lovers. Russian vernissages are attended by representatives of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Parliament, the diplomatic corps, the Turkish intelligentsia and business circles. One of the regular visitors of the exhibitions is the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey U. Cevikoz. His personal collection includes more than one painting by artists from the Russian diaspora.

In recent years, our artists Svetlana Ionach, Katya Mikhalskaya, Alexandra Koks, Valeria Aslanoglu and others have been able to make a big name for themselves in Turkey. Their creative destinies are different, but to a large extent they are united by a common source of inspiration - Turkey.

S. Inach has been living and creating in Turkey since 1993. At first, she worked here as a fashion designer, engaged in advertising and book graphics. However, since 2000, when her first solo exhibition in Turkey was successfully held in Istanbul, S. Ilac has been professionally engaged only in painting. Since then, she has held 13 exhibitions of her paintings in Istanbul, Ankara, Mugla, and Marmaris. He is a member of the United Society of Artists and Sculptors of Turkey.

"The architecture of Istanbul and other Turkish cities, the stormy southern nature - mountains, sea, orange groves, flowering cacti and almond trees in spring, the smell of spices in oriental bazaars, village coffee shops under a spreading plane tree - all this strikes my imagination," says Svetlana. - Turkey for me is a country from a fairy tale: a ray of light falls in the shade, on old mossy stone walls, tiles faded from the southern sun, floorboards worn down by time. And at the intersection of light and darkness, it is as if a time tunnel appears, along which you can be transported to almost any historical era." The themes of the infinity of time and ancient traditions that evoke the narrow streets of ancient Turkish cities are really reflected in many works of the Russian artist.

MAGIC OF THE EAST

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Vladimir Ivanovsky commented on the creative work of Katya Mikhalskaya and her daughter Alexandra Cox: "The problems of contemporary art are very diverse, but speaking about the work of these artists, I would like to draw attention to their desire to solve, perhaps, one of the most important - to unite artists and viewers from different countries." Since 1996, K. Mikhalskaya graduated with honors from the Faculty of Art and Graphics of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. Now the Moscow State Pedagogical University) and working in a very complex technique "alla prima" ("wet watercolors"), conducts numerous auctions and exhibitions in Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya, Izmir, Bursa, presenting works by masters of the Moscow school of painting.

"As an artist, I was very lucky to get in touch with one of the most ancient cultures and civilizations, to see the color of the sky that is absolutely different from ours, and the power of sunlight that is different. I was lucky-

I was lucky enough to visit different cities in Turkey. And each of them is like a whimsical element of a luxurious oriental carpet: the turquoise of the sea, the snow-white hot stone of ancient walls, the extraordinary brightness of spicy flowers unfamiliar to me, the complex rhythm of the silhouettes of the masts of ships at sunset, " says K. Mikhalskaya. All this is reflected in her watercolors dedicated to this country: "Premonition of spring", "Sea water and sun", "Forgotten Roads".

A lot of things are connected with the East in the creative biography of the young artist A. Cox. "The magic of the East-bright, festive and sunny, restless and inviting-has always attracted me," she says. Therefore, it is no coincidence that her thesis at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute was devoted to Japanese poetry of the IX century. "I love to travel, but I live in Turkey for a long time," says Alexandra. - The bright eastern sun, so unusual for my eyes, amazing Turkish landscapes, beautiful Turkish women inspired me to create many sketches and sketches, on the basis of which I later wrote more than 50 compositions. And this is just the beginning."

A. Cox admits that it was very useful for her to get acquainted with modern Turkish artists. She values communication with them very highly. The artist is particularly impressed by their subtle, consonant with her own, attitude to art.

Interestingly, even in the" Parisian " works of A. Cox is not complete without oriental motifs. Many of her works are painted on Barbes Boulevard. In this area of Paris, people from the African continent, from the countries of the Middle East, including Turkey, live compactly. Therefore, the atmosphere of the "oriental bazaar"always reigns there. Among such works are A. Cox's gouache "In Paris", as well as a series of paintings "The Girl from the Boulevard Barbez".

THE OTTOMAN ERA IN THE PAINTINGS OF A RUSSIAN WOMAN

It was Turkey that helped reveal the talent of another of our compatriots, Valeria Aslanoglu. After moving permanently to Antalya in 1998, she became interested in the history of Turkey and Russian-Turkish relations. The era of the Ottoman Empire struck Valeria with its pomp, brilliance and splendor. But V. Aslanoglu's greatest interest was attracted by the story of the legendary Roksolana. The first painting of the artist, made in 2004 in the form of a reproduction of the famous portrait of a medieval artist, was dedicated to her.

"I had a desire to show the luxury of costumes of the Ottoman era," says V. Aslanoglu. - And then I decided to give my works three-dimensionality with the help of fabric. So I began to use a mixed technique of creating paintings, using oil paints, fabrics and costume jewelry." Today in the" track record " of the artist - more than 30 works.

V. Aslanoglu speaks with gratitude about the exhibition of Russian masters of painting organized in 2008 by our Consulate General in Antalya, in which she also took part. The education she received in Russia allows her to apply her professional skills in staging theatrical performances of our compatriots.

* * *

Thus, today it is quite possible to talk about the beginning of the third wave of "export" to Turkey of the richest experience of the Russian school of painting. It is noteworthy that Turkish artists, highly appreciating the success of their Russian colleagues in Turkey, also began to express their wishes to regularly visit Russia with vernissages. Such examples of the interpenetration of two cultures clearly show that the words and actions of artists from Russia and Turkey are becoming more significant every year in the overall process of strengthening the multifaceted partnership and people's diplomacy of the two Eurasian states.

¹ In the 19th century, I. K. Aivazovsky's paintings were given a separate hall in Dolmabakhche. Such "Turkish" works as "Troy", "Maiden Tower", "Coffee House", "Princes ' Islands" and others are widely known.

^{Uravelli O.} 2 Turk bereg (russkaya emigration of the 1920s-1930s) / / Russian Compatriots in Turkey: history and Modernity. Istanbul, 2008, pp. 97-98.

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