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Contemporary Istanbul’s Uneven Roster Saw Foreign Galleries Making the Strongest Case for Turkish Art

What stood out this year was just how much the international presence outdid local efforts when it came to spotlighting Turkey's artists and the native art scene.

Istanbul’s mythology continues to hold great sway beyond its borders. Starting in November, the city will be celebrated in London at the V&A South Kensington through a wide array of objects from its collection as well as national and international loans, some from as early as the 4th Century. “Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires” will explore more than a thousand years of artistic production across the successive Byzantine (AD 330-1453) and Ottoman (1453-1922) empires. More than 200 relics—ranging from fine silks and textiles to mosaics and architectural fragments to works on paper and manuscripts—attest to the legacy of Turkish creativity.

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But what does Turkish creativity mean today? Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey’s international art fair held last week at Tersane, provides a glimpse of art from territories both adjacent to and beyond the region of the Black Sea. The more worldly cousin of CI Bloom, a spring art fair featuring exclusively Turkish art spaces, it brought together 70 galleries from 16 countries, with 22 first-time participants.

During a press conference, chairman and fair director Ali Güreli described a more “cautious and deliberate” art world resulting from the “general psychology” of malaise economically and politically in the world. He cited Middle East-based fairs as creating healthy competition for Istanbul. He believed that, locally, high income consumers and a new generation could potentially usher in a fresh wave of Turkish collectors (“they will learn,” Güreli assured). He lamented the lack of tax incentives for corporate collections, but pointed out that galleries at Contemporary Istanbul receive operational support via Turkish Airlines in the form of free airport-to-airport airfreight (up to 400 kg from multiple points of origin). In addition, the global customs bond (equivalent to 20 percent of the declared value of the artworks) is covered by........

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