Mavi Boncuk |
Esin Atıl (1937-2020)
February 24, 2020
It is with a heavy heart that the staff of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, would like to share with you the passing of our colleague Dr. Esin Atıl, curator of the Near East at the Freer Gallery of Art from 1970 to 1993.
A pioneer in the field of Islamic art, Esin Atıl studied with Oleg Grabar at the University of Michigan, the first graduate program of Islamic art in the United States. In 1969, she completed her dissertation on the Surname-i Vehbi: An Eighteenth Century Ottoman Book of Festivals. The following year, Dr. Atıl became curator of Near Eastern Art, succeeding Richard Ettinghausen, at the Freer. Until her retirement in 1993, her career was marked by a succession of outstanding achievements that transformed the way Islamic art was presented and appreciated within both exhibitions and publications.
Dr. Atıl’s work ranged tremendously in subject matter, time period, and geographic region. For instance, the exhibition and catalogue the Art of the Arab World (1975) is one of the seminal and still widely referenced books on this topic. Turkish Art (1980), a monograph she edited and contributed along with Roderic Davison, Ülkü Bates, Walter Denny, and Louise Mackie, is the first survey publication introducing Turkish art to a Western audience. With the exhibition Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks in 1981, Esin Atıl championed the idea of presenting Islamic art in dynastic terms, a tradition that continues in museums to this day. In Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art (1985), she collaborated with conservators W. Thomas Chase and Paul Jett to offer both stylistic and technical analysis of metalwork in the Freer. The high-quality reproductions, emphasis on details, and rigorous scholarship in her publications shaped generations of Islamic art historians and became a model to emulate.
The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, which made its debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 1987, is Esin Atıl’s most celebrated accomplishment. A true “block buster,” the exhibition attracted a record number of visitors and garnered national and international press attention. Its catalogue and accompanying monograph Süleymanname also became standard reference works.
This extraordinary exhibition showcased Atıl as a formidable curator who tirelessly worked with Turkish authorities and colleagues to change the antiquities laws of her country of birth to bring the treasures of the Topkapı Palace Museum to the United States. No curator has accomplished as much.
In a January 2019 interview with Zeynep Simavi[1], whose dissertation examines the impact of the The Age of Süleyman on the field of Turkish art, Esin Atıl said she loved her work and every single project she undertook. Her devotion to the field was amply evident in her care and attention to details, whether it was a publication, an exhibition, or a display case. Colleagues will also fondly remember her warmth, her sense of humor, her joie de vivre and lively stories, and her innate elegance.
A number of Esin Atıl’s seminal works are available to read and download for free:
Massumeh Farhad
Interim Deputy Director for Collections and Research
Chief Curator and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art
Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Smithsonian Institution
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[1] Ms. Zeynep Simavi is the incoming director at ARIT Istanbul. Ms. Simavi comes to ARIT from the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution, where she worked in public and scholarly engagement programs. Her areas of specialization include Ottoman art, contemporary art, especially of Iran and Turkey, museum studies, media and cultural studies, and the formation of Islamic art in the U.S., which is the subject of her dissertation at Istanbul Technical University. Dr. Antony Greenwood, ARIT Istanbul's long-time director, has retired as of June 30, 2019, after a career of hosting research fellows and visiting scholars, developing the library and lecture series, administering fellowships, engaging with local colleagues and friends, and managing ARIT’s facilities and legal status in Turkey. A scholar of Turkish history, Dr. Greenwood has taught Ottoman paleography at Bogazici University for many years. Recently, Dr. Greenwood developed the Istanbul Digital Library and American Board Archives project, and assisted with the founding of the multi-national Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative.
Esin Atıl (1937-2020)
February 24, 2020
It is with a heavy heart that the staff of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, would like to share with you the passing of our colleague Dr. Esin Atıl, curator of the Near East at the Freer Gallery of Art from 1970 to 1993.
A pioneer in the field of Islamic art, Esin Atıl studied with Oleg Grabar at the University of Michigan, the first graduate program of Islamic art in the United States. In 1969, she completed her dissertation on the Surname-i Vehbi: An Eighteenth Century Ottoman Book of Festivals. The following year, Dr. Atıl became curator of Near Eastern Art, succeeding Richard Ettinghausen, at the Freer. Until her retirement in 1993, her career was marked by a succession of outstanding achievements that transformed the way Islamic art was presented and appreciated within both exhibitions and publications.
Dr. Atıl’s work ranged tremendously in subject matter, time period, and geographic region. For instance, the exhibition and catalogue the Art of the Arab World (1975) is one of the seminal and still widely referenced books on this topic. Turkish Art (1980), a monograph she edited and contributed along with Roderic Davison, Ülkü Bates, Walter Denny, and Louise Mackie, is the first survey publication introducing Turkish art to a Western audience. With the exhibition Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks in 1981, Esin Atıl championed the idea of presenting Islamic art in dynastic terms, a tradition that continues in museums to this day. In Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art (1985), she collaborated with conservators W. Thomas Chase and Paul Jett to offer both stylistic and technical analysis of metalwork in the Freer. The high-quality reproductions, emphasis on details, and rigorous scholarship in her publications shaped generations of Islamic art historians and became a model to emulate.
The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, which made its debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 1987, is Esin Atıl’s most celebrated accomplishment. A true “block buster,” the exhibition attracted a record number of visitors and garnered national and international press attention. Its catalogue and accompanying monograph Süleymanname also became standard reference works.
This extraordinary exhibition showcased Atıl as a formidable curator who tirelessly worked with Turkish authorities and colleagues to change the antiquities laws of her country of birth to bring the treasures of the Topkapı Palace Museum to the United States. No curator has accomplished as much.
In a January 2019 interview with Zeynep Simavi[1], whose dissertation examines the impact of the The Age of Süleyman on the field of Turkish art, Esin Atıl said she loved her work and every single project she undertook. Her devotion to the field was amply evident in her care and attention to details, whether it was a publication, an exhibition, or a display case. Colleagues will also fondly remember her warmth, her sense of humor, her joie de vivre and lively stories, and her innate elegance.
A number of Esin Atıl’s seminal works are available to read and download for free:
Esin Atıl, Exhibition of 2500 Years of Persian Art (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1972).
Esin Atıl, Ceramics from the World of Islam (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1973).
Esin Atıl, Exhibition Catalogue of Turkish Art of the Ottoman Period (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1973).
Esin Atıl, Art of the Arab World (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1975).
Esin Atıl, W.T. Chase, and Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1985).
Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (Washington, D.C: National Gallery of Art, 1987).
Massumeh Farhad
Interim Deputy Director for Collections and Research
Chief Curator and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art
Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Smithsonian Institution
[1] Ms. Zeynep Simavi is the incoming director at ARIT Istanbul. Ms. Simavi comes to ARIT from the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution, where she worked in public and scholarly engagement programs. Her areas of specialization include Ottoman art, contemporary art, especially of Iran and Turkey, museum studies, media and cultural studies, and the formation of Islamic art in the U.S., which is the subject of her dissertation at Istanbul Technical University. Dr. Antony Greenwood, ARIT Istanbul's long-time director, has retired as of June 30, 2019, after a career of hosting research fellows and visiting scholars, developing the library and lecture series, administering fellowships, engaging with local colleagues and friends, and managing ARIT’s facilities and legal status in Turkey. A scholar of Turkish history, Dr. Greenwood has taught Ottoman paleography at Bogazici University for many years. Recently, Dr. Greenwood developed the Istanbul Digital Library and American Board Archives project, and assisted with the founding of the multi-national Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative. ARIT Istanbul center [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ARIT/IstanbulCenter.html]
Istanbul Digital Library [http://dlir.org/arit-digital-library.html]
American Board Archives [https://archives.saltresearch.org/handle/123456789/1]
Feriköy Initiative [http://www.ferikoycemetery.org/]
Istanbul Digital Library [http://dlir.org/arit-digital-library.html]
American Board Archives [https://archives.saltresearch.org/handle/123456789/1]
Feriköy Initiative [http://www.ferikoycemetery.org/]