İlhan Koman Sculpture and Painting Museum

İlhan Koman Sculpture and Painting Museum, a art museum affiliated with the Faculty of Fine Arts of Trakya University, has been serving in Edirne since 2002.

The museum's collection consists of works by 376 artists as of 2019. It takes its name from İlhan Koman, a sculptor from Edirne whose works are in the museum. It is located in a historic mansion in the garden of the historic Karaağaç Train Station, which serves as the university's Faculty of Fine Arts.

When the museum was founded in 2002, it was located in the Bayezid II Complex and was called the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Museum. In 2011 it moved to Karaağaç and was given the name İlhan Koman.

History

The museum opened as the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Museum on 23 September 2002, the 20th anniversary of Trakya University, in the Medical Madrasa section of the Bayezid II Complex. The collection was created under the guidance of Ayla Ersoy, Ali Candaş and Basri Erdem, who were then serving at Marmara University, and all works were donated by the artists who owned them.

The Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Museum moved in 2011 to the historic Karaağaç Station Building, then the rectorate building on the Karaağaç campus, and opened at its new location on 20 July 2011. The museum obtained its official status by a letter from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism dated 23 October 2002.

In 2008, when the medical madrasa was turned into the health museum's section displaying medical education, the works of the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Museum were collected and placed under protection in a room of the Health Museum. The museum was moved on 20 July 2011 to the Karaağaç Train Station, which had begun to be used as the rectorate building of Trakya University.

By a decision of the University Senate on 21 November 2011, the museum's name was changed to "İlhan Koman Sculpture and Painting Museum."

Collection

The first works presented to the public at the museum comprised a collection of 101 pieces, including stained glass, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking and oil paintings. The works, produced by a total of 87 different artists, nine of whom were of foreign nationality, were gathered through donations and included in the collection. In the minutes published by the Price Determination Commission, which was established during the museum's founding process, on 16 December 2002 the collection's value in Turkish lira was determined as 260,250,000,000 (two hundred sixty billion two hundred fifty million).

Among the works donated by the family of İlhan Koman, after whom the museum is named, there were 2 reliefs of female figures, 2 female torsos, 1 female bust and plaster studies from the artist’s student period. Later, with the donation of the "4 π" sculpture by the artist’s sister, the number of İlhan Koman works in the museum rose to 9.

When the artist Güngör Danışman Arıbal and his wife Güner Rıfat Arıbal donated a total of 270 works belonging to Turkish artists of the Republican era, the size of the collection reached 358.

As of 2019, the museum collection contains 685 works created by 376 artists using 22 different techniques. The collection includes works by artists such as Basri Erdem, Burhan Doğançay, Devrim Erbil, Habib Gerez, Hasan Pekmezci, Hasip Pektaş, İsmail Avcı, Muzaffer Akyol, Nermin Pura, Numan Pura, Ramiz Aydın, Selahattin Kara, Tülin Onat. One third of the collection consists of oil paintings. This is followed by works made with printmaking, watercolor and mixed techniques.

Sculptures

In the museum’s sculpture collection, there are 35 different works by a total of 16 artists, including Ali Suat Kızıltuğ, Esin Oktayer, Ferhat Kamil Satıcı, İlhan Koman, Mehmet Uyanık, Meriç Hızal, Mustafa Gürünlü, Mustafa Tömekçe, Nadia Arditti, Necmettin Yağcı, Nevzat Atalay, Serkan Böncü, Şaziye Can, Yaşar Sami Gökgöz and Vahdet Malik. Some of these works are:

4 π: Made by Koman in 1983. This work measures 12x12 cm, is made of thin metal sheet and painted white; it is one of the artist’s experimental studies using geometric shapes.

Blue Process: It was made by Hızal in 1993. It is a sculpture measuring 35x35x35 cm, created by using wood and polyester material together. It is thought that the artist, who spent his childhood years in Edirne, shaped this work being influenced by the religious architecture here.