Why go
The arts provide a clear way to see Turkey’s exchange with Europe and the wider Islamic world. Ottoman literature drew strongly on Persian and Arabic writing; later writers adopted forms such as the novel and modern play. Painters explored European styles while developing their own subjects and approaches.
The full story
Painting in a Western sense developed strongly in the nineteenth century. Osman Hamdi Bey became an important figure in the depiction of the human form, while later artists engaged with movements such as Impressionism and Cubism. In literature, the Tanzimat reform era opened space for genres including the novel and short story. Nâmık Kemal wrote the novel İntibâh, and Şinasi wrote the play Şair Evlenmesi. Poetry changed again in the twentieth century, when Nâzım Hikmet introduced free verse and the Garip movement took a different approach to everyday language. The novels of Orhan Pamuk offer another way into the meeting and friction of cultural traditions. These names are more useful as threads to follow than as a single timeline: each shows a different response to inherited forms and new influences.