Turtles for Lanterns

The other day I went with a friend to the Istanbul Modern Art Museum. Setting and view masterful, glorious, as always in Istanbul. Architecture commensurate with the usual idea of a modern art museum without being too noticeable. The special exhibit was dedicated to the work of Cihed (Jihad!) Burak, who seems to be very much loved in Turkey, and who did indeed produce some beautiful but above all funny paintings, but whom I appreciated far less than I would have if we'd seen his stuff first, instead of after touring through the permanent exhibits. There always seems to be a saturation point with museums—if I am paying attention, I can only soak up so much before succumbing to an abstracted fatigue. In any case I liked Burak’s work less than Abidin Dino's work as featured at the Sakip Sabanci (a Turkish bigshot) Museum, seen before my holiday travels. Go ahead and do an image search for Dino’s stuff—it’s really good.
Two things I wanted to note about the permanent exhibits: An amazing painting of the Ottoman fleet at anchor as the sun sets over the city, done in the late 1800's by a Russian named Ayvazovski (from the Caucasus, maybe?). Quite simply better than the real thing, with light that seemed to emanate from some source behind the canvas. The second was a wonderful anecdote my friend told me apropos of an old court painter about how the sultans liked to place candles on the backs of turtles and set them loose to wander about the imperial tulip garden to provide atmospheric effect as they amused themselves with their courtesans at night. What a lovely picture—I am very sold on the old Ottomans. What amazing aesthetes.