Abstract:

The first half of the 20th Century witnessed the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. This was a time when modern took the place of tradition. Great social change happened and as a reflection of this, family life, education, clothing habits, the concept of woman and domestic life transformed, too. These changes inspired contemporary novels and paintings. Modern homes, modern families, modern women were the subjects of the novels especially in the 1930’s. Between the 1930’s and the 1960’s the artist Şeref Akdik depicted the changing images of homes and women in her portraits and genre paintings. These works reveal furniture, paintings on the walls, flowers in vases as the elements of modern decoration and lady’s suits and trousers as modern women’s fashion. Her paintings depict daily life observed in an objective way. Şeref Akdik began her arts education at the Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (School of Fine Arts) in 1915 and after winning a competition attended the studio of Paul Albert Laurens at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1925. After that, she first became a member of Müstakil Ressamlar ve Heykeltraşlar Birliği (Independent Painters and Sculptors Association) and then took part at the exhibitons of another painters’ association d Grubu (Group d). This work with the title “On the Track of Outfits and Households: An Analysis of Fashion and Living Spaces in the Paintings of Şeref Akdik”, is an attempt to read the reflections of social changes in the fashion and living spaces from the paintings of Şeref Akdik and contemporary novels.

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