The Secrets of Artworks Begins August 2

Istanbul Modern's adult workshop and seminar program continues on Atolye Modern online. With the steps of defining, analyzing and interpreting each lesson of the seminar titled “The Secrets of Artworks”, the participants convey a model that they can always apply in examining works of art.

Dr. Instructor Organized by its member Fırat Arapoğlu, the studies covered in the program are analyzed from different perspectives such as material properties, implicit and explicit meanings, characteristics that represent and exceed their periods, and production methods.

Seminars with certificate of participation

This seminar consists of four interconnected lessons. Workshop Modern Participation Certificate is given to the participants who complete the courses.

Secrets of Artworks

2, 9, 16, 23 August 2022,

19.30 – 21.30

The first lesson focuses on the analysis of Edouard Manet's "Picnic on the Grassland" (1863) and Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" (1889). Along with the works, it offers clues about how art evolved after the second half of the 19th century.

The second lesson takes place through the analysis of Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain” (1917) and Hannah Höch's “Cut With the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany” (1919-20). Based on these works of art, it focuses on the concept of avant-garde in modern art and its critique.

The third lesson is the analysis of Yoko Ono's "Painting to be stepped on" (1960-61) and Hans Haacke's "MoMa Poll" (1970). It deals with the great transformation of art production practices after the second half of the 20th century.

The fourth lecture is Felix Gonzalez-Torres' "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA)" (1991) and Kara Walker's "A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the Unpaid and Overworked Artisans Who Have Refined Our Sweet Tastes From the Cane Fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the Demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant” (2014). It touches on the richness of expression of today's art with its materials, exhibitions and production processes and examines the political projections of artistic discourse.