Antalya Culture Center Opens With Picasso, Ara Güler

- The former Antalya Trade and Industrial Chamber (ATSO) building in the center of the southern city has been turned into a culture center. The opening of the Antalya Culture and Arts Center (AKS) was made with original paintings by Picasso on Sept. 16, while another opening exhibition displays works from famous Turkish photography artist Ara Güler.

ATSO President Davut Çetin, Picasso House Museum Cultural Promotion Director Mario Virgilio Montanez Arroyo and Suna-İnan Foundation Pera Museum Director Özalp Birol were among the attendees of the opening ceremony.

Çetin said the AKS would bring together the residents of Antalya with the best examples and figures from the arts and also be home to the cultural accumulation of the region.

He said such a comprehensive show by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Picasso, was being hosted for the first in Antalya.

The exhibition was organized under the theme “Women and Bulls” in collaboration with the Picasso House Museum and the Picasso Foundation in Spain.

Arroyo said Picasso obsessively depicted women from all perspectives, adding, “When doing this, Picasso depicts the joy of life, energy, will and even hope of women. Bullfighters and bulls also have an important place in Picasso’s gravures.”

Birol said the exhibition was being displayed for the first time in a country outside Europe.

The exhibition, also with contributions by the Cervantes Institute, displays 54 gravures and ceramic works by Picasso made between 1929 and 1964. It will run through Feb. 28, 2016.

Antalya by Ara Güler

Another opening exhibition at the AKS was “Light and History: Antalya Through the Eyes of Ara Güler,” featuring works gathered from Güler’s special archive.

The exhibition, coordinated by the Pera Museum, displays visuals from Antalya Kaleiçi and the coastal line as well as its neighboring area including Kaş, Patara, Xanthos, Myra, Pinara, Side and Perge.

Nearly 40 photos taken by the great master shed light on the region’s extraordinary historical and archaeological richness. The exhibition will continue through Sept. 28, 2016.