CONTEXTEXHIBITIONS

ICOC

RISINGTO THE OCCASION

In addition to the ICOC Dealers’ Fair contingent at The Swissôtel in Maçka, several leading dealers, both Turkish and foreign, are staging exhibitions in their galleries, of which four are highlighted here.

CLIVE’SKILIMS

AN INCREASING NUMBER of Westerners such as the English rug and textile dealer Clive Rogers have established a presence in Istanbul as semiresidents, with homes in and around the old city. From 17-24 April 2007, Rogers,who is well-known for his passionate disregard of condition in antique carpets and kilims, is ‘at home’ to ICOC visitors in a private old wooden house in the ancient quarter of Kadırga, close to Kum Kapı, with a small but stylish selection of Anatolian kilims and fragments (above),an Azeri piece and an early zili flatweave.

SUAT’SFIRST

IT HAS TAKEN A DOZEN YEARS for the wellknown Istanbul antique carpet dealer Suat Capas of Su-De to assemble the collection of ‘Early Anatolian Weaving’, that is featured in the first ever exhibition to be held in his Sultanahmet premises located just up the hill behind the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (TIEM) in the Hippodrome (until 30 April 2007). The gallery at 1001 Direk Meydani, IletisimHan 7/2, has been specially renovated for the occasion. Included among the 50-60 pieces on display, all of which are said to be fresh to the market, is this late 18th century Aksaraykilim (detail right) from central Anatolia.

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CONTEXTEXHIBITIONS

ICOC

MEHMET’SFOURTH

IT IS NO MEAN ACHIEVEMENT for Istanbul textile art dealer Mehmet Çetinkaya, in addition to his all-consuming efforts as head of the Local Organising Committee for the Istanbul ICOC, simultaneously to mount his FourthAnnual Exhibition at his stylish gallery in the shadow of Sultanahmet’s

Blue Mosque (Küçük Ayasofya Caddesi, Tavukhane Sokak 7, 19-30 April 2007). Çetinkaya’s customary variety of antique Turkish, Kurdish, Transcaucasian, Turkmen and other Central Asian textiles, robes, kilims, pile rugs and trappings is, as expected, visually strong, including of course the Uzbek

suzani embroideries (see ‘Fairs’ this issue) and ikat weaves, as well as Kaitag embroideries, upon which he has founded his international reputation. We illustrate a 19th century Kurdish long rug from eastern Anatolia 1, and an exceptional ruband(woman’s embroidered silk wedding veil) from Tajikistan 2.

SEREF’STURKMENS

TURKMEN MAIN CARPETS are considered to be among the most ‘important’ of Central Asian tribal weavings, as they were traditionally reserved for use on special occasions, often as ‘audience’ rugs upon which the khan of a clan would sit to greet someone of similar stature. They take centre stage in Seref Özen’s new Cocoon gallery (Küçük

Ayasofya Caddesi 17, Sultanahmet) from 15-30 April 2007. The exhibition features rugs from all Turkmen groups save the Saryk and Salor. Özen’s classic Tekke main carpet 1has perfectly proportioned major göls, kurbagheminor güls and velvety pile. The art of the Yomut family weavers is well represented by two rare chuval-gül rugs as well as a kepse/C-göl main

carpet 2.Another rare chuval-göl carpet 3is labelled Yomut/Chodor dueto its unusual synthesis of styles, perhaps arising from groups living side-byside in the Khiva region.And the Middle Amu Darya region is represented by an Ersari tauk nuska göl main carpet, and a compartmented format ‘Beshir’ long rug with zoomorphic imagery.

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