ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Ottoman artists’ responses to the state-supported Sisli studio project, the national and international reception of the artworks, and, finally, an analysis of some of the war paintings produced by Ottoman artists for the exhibition. It suggests that, ironically, the efforts to extend state control over artistic patronage and to define war-related themes for artists to develop actually provided Ottoman painters an unprecedented opportunity to experiment liberally with the visual language of war. In May 1915, France, Britain, and Russia declared that the Ottoman Empire’s policies were ‘against humanity and civilisation’. Plans to transport the paintings to Berlin were ultimately prevented by the surrender of the Ottomans in October. The primary strength of the exhibition was war-related works, but, in an extension of the Istanbul catalogue, nearly every category of modern Ottoman painting was represented: still life, figurative and genre paintings, portraits, and landscapes.
