Talk

Chamber Talks
Erasing the Fez, Constructing Identity: Traces of Modernization in the Self-Portraits of Halil Paşa
Elif Dastarlı

22 April 2026 / 18:30

The process of modernization in Turkish painting, spanning from the Tanzimat era to the republic, is not merely a technical change in style but the story of a profound imagetic and identity-based transformation. During this period, art became the most significant mirror of social change; the concepts of Westernization and modernization were perceived through a symbolic shift ranging from the individual's physical appearance to their public presence. Halil Paşa’s self-portraits offer one of the most striking examples of this transformation. The fact that the artist subsequently erased the fez from one of his self-portraits—as documented in the Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu archive—and reconstructed himself with a fezless image, reveals the direct impact of the period's anxiety over modernization and the ideal of 'appearing Western' on the artist's own countenance.

Elif Dastarlı will discuss how Halil Paşa constructed himself as a modern subject through traditional symbols that were either scraped off or never included in his canvases, and the significance of these 'imagetic interventions' within the social history of Turkish painting.

The talk will take place on the ground floor of the Istanbul Research Institute. Admission is free, and no reservations are required. The event will be conducted in Turkish, and simultaneous interpretation will not be provided. A recording of the talk will subsequently be published on the Istanbul Research Institute’s YouTube channel.

About Chamber Talks
Chamber Talks initiated by the Istanbul Research Institute (İAE) in 2008 to add a different dimension to Istanbul studies, aims to feature the latest research and discussions about Istanbul with its scope ranging from history to architecture, and from music to cinema.

About Elif Dastarlı
Elif Dastarlı is an associate professor of art history and an art critic specializing in modern and contemporary art. She received her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Istanbul University and her master’s degree in Western Art and Contemporary Art from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She worked as an editor for various journals and publishing houses and translated art books from English into Turkish. For her academic research, she lived for a period in Lisbon and Strasbourg. She conducted her postdoctoral research at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom with a TÜBİTAK scholarship. Her book Yan Kapıdan Girenler: Modern Türk Resminin Analizi was published by Hayalperest Yayınevi in 2021, and the book she co-authored, Feminist Art in Resistance: Aesthetics, Methods and Politics of Art in Turkey, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2023. She currently works as a faculty member in the Department of Art and Cultural Management at Yıldız Technical University.