Examining the reflections of Turkish mythology in contemporary Turkish painting

The traditional and cultural elements of the Turkish society, which has a history of thousands of years is constituted by the effects of their mythology and early beliefs. The first examples of Turkish mythological elements were visually accessed through petroglyphs and were started to be put in writing in a systematic way through scientific studies starting from the early 19th century. The purpose of this prepared master's thesis is; to examine how and in what sense the artists of Contemporary Turkish Painting use in their works, which is underlie of our cultural and traditional elements and which is the elements of the Turkish mythology that have passed into our current beliefs in line with our early beliefs. The data in this study that was prepared for this purpose, were obtained from qualitative research techniques by using descriptive scanning technique. This study prepared in this context consists of three parts. In the first part; general information about the science of mythology has been given and the connection with the art of painting has been investigated. In the second part; about the history of Turkish mythology, it's classification and information of its mainly symbols have been given. In the third part; examples of the works of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Adnan Çoker, Erol Akyavaş, Süleyman Saim Tekcan, Can Göknil, Ahmet Yeşil, Mehmet Başbuğ and Hasan Kıran, selected from the Contemporary Turkish Painting have been examined. As a result of this examining, the artists in their works; The moon as the celestial symbol, the horse and bird figures as an animal symbol, cosmic life tree in terms of both formal and content were observed.