Istanbul Modern Museum
The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Turkey’s first private museum to organize modern and contemporary art exhibitions, was founded in 2004 and occupies an 8,000 square meter site on the shores of the Bosphorus.
Istanbul Modern Museum is the big daddy of a slew of newish, privately funded art galleries in the city. Its stunning location on the shores of the Bosphorus and its extensive collection of Turkish 20th-century art make it well worth a visit. The icing on the cake is provided by a constantly changing and uniformly excellent program of exhibitions by local and international artists in the exhibition galleries on the ground floor. Istanbul Modern embraces a global vision to collect, preserve, exhibit and document works of modern and contemporary art and make them accessible to art lovers.
As part of its commitment to sharing Turkey’s artistic creativity with wide audiences and promoting its cultural identity in the international art world, Istanbul Modern hosts a broad array of interdisciplinary activities.
Apart from permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a photography gallery, and spaces for educational and social programs, the museum offers a cinema, restaurant, design store and an extensive library.
There’s also a well-stocked gift shop, a cinema that shows art-house films and a stylish cafe-restaurant with superb views of the Bosphorus.
Istanbul Modern is in a prime location and is easy to get to on foot from Taksim Square (if you are prepared for a longer walk). Entry is 15 TL which is very reasonable for the size of the collection.
You could easily spend 3-4 hours here. The restaurant/bar overlooks the Bosphorus (when there is not a cruise ship parked in front of it !) and is a perfect place to grab a quick lunch or snack. Make sure to check out the museum gift shop great gifts not found in the rest of the city.
But as the modern art in Turkey is moving fast, it is worthwhile to see what is going on. Location is a bit out of everything, but still easy to reach by tram.
Brilliant space, fascinating to see how Turkish art has developed from the Ataturk era, with a high proportion of female artists' works on display.
i loved the place, the exposition, the roof of the books suspended.
The different art forms (video, paintings, photos, etc)
This museum is housed in old shore-side warehouses and exhibits a timeline of modern (20th century) art in Turkey. In addition to the artworks belonging to the course of modern art in the country, exhibitons of new work by international artists are also shown. Every two years (odd years), this is also a venue of the Istanbul Biennale.
After being for three days in the city and seeing all the major attractions and monuments, the Istanbul Modern Museum was a very pleasant surprise! Very innovative, interesting, smart and with some truly interesting videos and installations, it really shows the modern face of Turkey.
This was my second visit and even though they do have a permanent collection, they do change the exhibits. The current exhibit was titled "Past and Future" and featured works from the permanent collection chronicling art from the mid-1800's to contemporary Turkish art and how the Turkish artists re-interpreted and reacted to the art movements and trends in Europe. Wonderful…
An extremely well organised well maintained and really informative collection of historical value geatest thing is the videos there where the locals are educated in good living and to shun old prejudices a marvel in an islamic country hats off to KEMAL worth spending 3hours a must in istanbul
Many modern art items on display in a airy modern building. It all come down to personal taste.
Extremely interesting museum, great view on the Bosphorus, an amazing restaurant, and lots of things to see and activities for children too. An extremely well designed museum with excellent explanations in English and very nice staff. A must see if you want to move away from the historical Istanbul and see what contemporary Turkish artists are up to.
The museum is full of excellent contemporary art, mostly Turkish, with some thought provoking video installations. It is a great counterpart to traditional Istanbul, The cafe overlooks the Bosphorous and has a terrace. It serves really good, reasonably priced food.