The Turkish Republic and Murat Palta
Pronounced “Murat Pulta”
Pressured out of their homes in mid-Asia by the Chinese and the Mongols, the nomadic Turkic tribes travelled West, and converted to Islam during the 8th century.¹ The Ottoman Empire was born out of the unity of these Turkic tribes who settled in Anatolia.
Ottoman Empire controlled much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries, until the Sultan title as the head of state was eliminated in 1922.
Defeated in the First World War, Ottoman Empire weakened and lost much of its land. A resistance movement started soon after the war, in opposition of foreign forces occupying the land, leading way to the formation of a National Assembly.
“Tomorrow,
we will declare our nation a republic!”
On this day 97 years ago, Turkey was declared a republic, in leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, depicted above by the Istanbul based artist Murat Palta.
In his paintings, Palta illustrates stories from popular culture in the traditional style of Ottoman miniature art. Miniature is an art form commonly appearing in history books, used to visually depict a written piece, such as a mandate or a myth. Lacking in written text but full of symbolism, they are intended to reflect the complex elements of a story.
Palta became fascinated with illustrated stories through looking at graphic novels as a child. Imitating texts & images from graphic novels before he learnt to read², he then went onto studying graphic design and now works within the Miniature medium, which he calls a past synonym of illustration.
“Unlike traditional arts, graphic design is a constantly changing medium, reinventing itself all the time. I try to reflect this in my art even though my work is based in a traditional art form like miniature”
A digital book of Palta’s project titled ‘All Work and No Play’ is available to view through this link, for the ones who want to see more of his truly original work.
[1] https://www.allaboutturkey.com/ottoman.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij-8H3ynGmk
Artworks and E-Book - Courtesy of the artist.
