A designer makes a comeback with a ’Tombac’ exhibit
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Gül Demir and Niki Gamm
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 21, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Merve Gürsel is one of the most creative and thoughtful designers in Istanbul and started one of the outstanding design centers in the city. She took a break from her interior design career but now she’s back. Tombak, tombac, tambac Ğ whatever the spelling, it is an alloy of copper and zinc and on occasion arsenic. It can be used to imitate gold in cheap jewelry items.
Merve Gürsel is one of the most creative and thoughtful designers in Istanbul and started one of the outstanding design centers in the city. She took a break from her interior design career but now she’s back.
The "Portraits and Tombakca" exhibition, curated by art consultant Beral Madra, opened at SUAV in the Suzer Art Center, a beehive of artistic and cultural activities in Suzer Plaza. The exhibition features Gürsel’s tombaks and portraits of famous people in Istanbul society who posed with the tombaks shot by Sitki Kosemen and Zeynel Abidin Aggul. The exhibition was open for only four days at SUAV but we can hope it will open again somewhere else.
"Tombak has been criticized as a luxury. It was transferred into a palace style. As for today it has been identified as a historical work," said Gürsel. "The tombaks I am presenting are being offered by another expression ’tombakca’ and have appeared because of a compulsion to produce them that began six years ago. The perfect proportions of the Ottoman shapes, the globes, the domes, the curly forms, the variety of fabrics and original decorative styles have created the inspirational source of these current designs. Through this exhibition, we are drawing attention to our traditional handicrafts that are being forgotten today, disappearing even, and the functional items they produced."
One has to say that Gürsel is right. Collectors who attend sales at some of Europe’s major auction houses appreciate quite highly the Ottoman tombak items, more than most Turks do. A November sale at a Christie’s auction for example netted slightly over $11,000 for an 18th century coffee jug that measured only 5.5 inches high.
Gürsel is a member of the Kurttepeli family and while she was still single she began working in decoration and decorative products under the mark MK Design & Art brand. She achieved international recognition as an interior designer specializing in home and office design. After she married Kaan Gürsel, a member of the Gürsel family that owns The Marmara, she decided to take a break from her work and only began to return to work slowly after her daughter began to grow up. In the interim she served in executive positions with several charities in which she continues to play an active role. The tombaks that were displayed were designs by Gürsel as part of MK Design & Art. Watch out for her again.
The Suzer Art Center
The Suzer Group has numerous large projects including the Ritz Carlton Istanbul Hotel, the Residences, which appeal to high-income people, famous restaurants and cinemas. The whole plaza offers 110,285 square meters of space and is estimated to have cost $500 million.
The Suzer Art Center is on the entrance level of Suzer Plaza. It is a kind of one-stop artistic-cultural center. The Center includes EKAVArt Gallery that Inci Aksoy manages, SUAV Designer’s Platform and Replicart that Çiğdem Simavi directs, Evren Kayar’s Jewellery Design Studio. Plays are put on at Tiyatro MAAN and movies are shown in the AFM Suzer Cinemas. The center is a new place for Istanbul residents to meet and enjoy themselves. EKAV, Educational, Cultural, Research Foundation, established in 1991, has its headquarters in Suzer Plaza. It provides every kind of help needed in the cultural area so that Turkish art reaches the level of modern art; to educate administrators and technical personnel; to send students abroad, open exhibitions and other kinds of art events and help in the areas of education, sports, health and social support.
SUAV Gallery has a beautifully designed and relaxing atmosphere in the gallery. It is replete with objects that reflect the richness of past cultures in the new interpretations of artifacts prepared under that influence. It also has tombaks among the many items it displays. There are also cultural gifts whose importance can’t be stressed enough and contribute to cultural tourism. (Open Monday Ğ Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday 10:00-16:00. Closed Sundays).
SUAV Gallery is a part of the KUSAV Foundation, a charitable trust set up by Çiğdem Simavi, its current president. The principal aim of the KUSAV Foundation is to preserve Turkey’s artistic and cultural heritage by actively promoting national and worldwide interest in the country’s traditions. More specifically, the foundation aims to heighten awareness among the general population and promote appreciation of the historical development of the arts in Turkey. As well the foundation works with governmental and public sector institutions to conserve and restore Turkey’s cultural and artistic past.
What Is tombak?
Tombak, tombac, tambac Ğ whatever the spelling it is an alloy of copper and zinc and on occasion arsenic. It can be used to imitate gold in cheap jewelry and for gilding or so the Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary of 1913 writes.
Look a little further and you’ll learn that it is tambaca or tambaque in Portuguese, tamb [=a]ga in Malay in which it means copper and perhaps originates from Sankrit as t[=a]mraka. It is a very malleable and ductile substance that can be beaten into thin leaves. It resembles brass. The more zinc added, the whiter the metal becomes. During the Ottoman Empire the word was also applied to items covered in gold leaf, an amalgam of gold and quicksilver.
Multipurpose uses
The material was used on ewer sets, trays and round tables, ewers, food dishes, banner holders, bowls, lanterns, candle holders, standards atop mosques and even military equipment and horse trappings. The earliest examples found are horse trappings from the early stages of Ottoman expansion. In the 15th century there are elements that show Mamluk influence, not surprising because the Mamluks of Egypt were themselves of Turkish origin. The 16th century saw the development of the classical Ottoman style. As the Ottoman Empire’s economy began to decline in the 18th century, works of gold and silver became rare. That led to the greater use of tombak in the various items mentioned above. Often one meets a signature or even a line of writing on the item.
The "Portraits and Tombakca" exhibition, curated by art consultant Beral Madra, opened at SUAV in the Suzer Art Center, a beehive of artistic and cultural activities in Suzer Plaza. The exhibition features Gürsel’s tombaks and portraits of famous people in Istanbul society who posed with the tombaks shot by Sitki Kosemen and Zeynel Abidin Aggul. The exhibition was open for only four days at SUAV but we can hope it will open again somewhere else.
"Tombak has been criticized as a luxury. It was transferred into a palace style. As for today it has been identified as a historical work," said Gürsel. "The tombaks I am presenting are being offered by another expression ’tombakca’ and have appeared because of a compulsion to produce them that began six years ago. The perfect proportions of the Ottoman shapes, the globes, the domes, the curly forms, the variety of fabrics and original decorative styles have created the inspirational source of these current designs. Through this exhibition, we are drawing attention to our traditional handicrafts that are being forgotten today, disappearing even, and the functional items they produced."
One has to say that Gürsel is right. Collectors who attend sales at some of Europe’s major auction houses appreciate quite highly the Ottoman tombak items, more than most Turks do. A November sale at a Christie’s auction for example netted slightly over $11,000 for an 18th century coffee jug that measured only 5.5 inches high.
Gürsel is a member of the Kurttepeli family and while she was still single she began working in decoration and decorative products under the mark MK Design & Art brand. She achieved international recognition as an interior designer specializing in home and office design. After she married Kaan Gürsel, a member of the Gürsel family that owns The Marmara, she decided to take a break from her work and only began to return to work slowly after her daughter began to grow up. In the interim she served in executive positions with several charities in which she continues to play an active role. The tombaks that were displayed were designs by Gürsel as part of MK Design & Art. Watch out for her again.
The Suzer Art Center
The Suzer Group has numerous large projects including the Ritz Carlton Istanbul Hotel, the Residences, which appeal to high-income people, famous restaurants and cinemas. The whole plaza offers 110,285 square meters of space and is estimated to have cost $500 million.
The Suzer Art Center is on the entrance level of Suzer Plaza. It is a kind of one-stop artistic-cultural center. The Center includes EKAVArt Gallery that Inci Aksoy manages, SUAV Designer’s Platform and Replicart that Çiğdem Simavi directs, Evren Kayar’s Jewellery Design Studio. Plays are put on at Tiyatro MAAN and movies are shown in the AFM Suzer Cinemas. The center is a new place for Istanbul residents to meet and enjoy themselves. EKAV, Educational, Cultural, Research Foundation, established in 1991, has its headquarters in Suzer Plaza. It provides every kind of help needed in the cultural area so that Turkish art reaches the level of modern art; to educate administrators and technical personnel; to send students abroad, open exhibitions and other kinds of art events and help in the areas of education, sports, health and social support.
SUAV Gallery has a beautifully designed and relaxing atmosphere in the gallery. It is replete with objects that reflect the richness of past cultures in the new interpretations of artifacts prepared under that influence. It also has tombaks among the many items it displays. There are also cultural gifts whose importance can’t be stressed enough and contribute to cultural tourism. (Open Monday Ğ Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday 10:00-16:00. Closed Sundays).
SUAV Gallery is a part of the KUSAV Foundation, a charitable trust set up by Çiğdem Simavi, its current president. The principal aim of the KUSAV Foundation is to preserve Turkey’s artistic and cultural heritage by actively promoting national and worldwide interest in the country’s traditions. More specifically, the foundation aims to heighten awareness among the general population and promote appreciation of the historical development of the arts in Turkey. As well the foundation works with governmental and public sector institutions to conserve and restore Turkey’s cultural and artistic past.
What Is tombak?
Tombak, tombac, tambac Ğ whatever the spelling it is an alloy of copper and zinc and on occasion arsenic. It can be used to imitate gold in cheap jewelry and for gilding or so the Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary of 1913 writes.
Look a little further and you’ll learn that it is tambaca or tambaque in Portuguese, tamb [=a]ga in Malay in which it means copper and perhaps originates from Sankrit as t[=a]mraka. It is a very malleable and ductile substance that can be beaten into thin leaves. It resembles brass. The more zinc added, the whiter the metal becomes. During the Ottoman Empire the word was also applied to items covered in gold leaf, an amalgam of gold and quicksilver.
Multipurpose uses
The material was used on ewer sets, trays and round tables, ewers, food dishes, banner holders, bowls, lanterns, candle holders, standards atop mosques and even military equipment and horse trappings. The earliest examples found are horse trappings from the early stages of Ottoman expansion. In the 15th century there are elements that show Mamluk influence, not surprising because the Mamluks of Egypt were themselves of Turkish origin. The 16th century saw the development of the classical Ottoman style. As the Ottoman Empire’s economy began to decline in the 18th century, works of gold and silver became rare. That led to the greater use of tombak in the various items mentioned above. Often one meets a signature or even a line of writing on the item.