The arabesque culture in comtemporary Turkish art: Migration, identity and aesthetics in the works of Gülsün Karamustafa

In this thesis, the works of Gülsün Karamustafa which were the first instances of the relationship between the contemporary Turkish art and arabesque subculture were examined. The population movement from rural to urban areas of Turkey which started in 1950s and persisted up until the 1980s brought a new way of urban life in the metropolitan cities of the country, specifically in Istanbul. Karamustafa who had witnessed this transformation of İstanbul, handled the migration issue in a new fashion, apart from the one developing around the village, and focused on the arabesque which came to the front as the way of life of the "new urban people". Her works in which she described the arabesque culture with a painstaking insight like a chronicler has a great importance as they were her first products and quite helpful for looking at the period. Her perspective presents a great opportunity for visualizing the dichotomies and inevitable coexistences of the 1980s such as rural-urban, traditional-modern and center-periphery phenomena. The works in which she documented the migrants' habits and characteristics considering the arabesque phenomenon were further investigated in this study for contributing to the studies of this period. The works of Gülsün Karamustafa were evaluated in four chapters in this study including the creation, development and transformation processes. The various opinions on the meaning and usages of the arabesque were presented in this thesis for comprehending further how and in which ways she handled arabesque. Secondly, the historical background of the arabesque was taken into consideration, starting with the westernization movement of the Ottoman Empire, including the culture policy of the early republic and the influences of the center-periphery relations prevailing during the multi-party system over the culture. In addition, the phenomena of urbanization, globalization and identity politics during the 1980s were also considered. The transformations and changes in the Turkish art after the 80s were illustrated with a special emphasis over arabesque which has its own set of facts about migration, aesthetics and identity. In the last chapter, the art and life of the artist Karamustafa were examined and her works she had affiliated with arabesque were presented under the headlines of migration, culture-identity and art.