Istanbul’s Pera Museum revives the legacy of ceramicist Minas
Haci Abdullah’s timeless flavors, solstice-inspired art and James Baldwin’s Istanbul.
Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.
“You’re only recommending air-conditioned places, aren’t you?” asked a friend as I put the finishing touches on this issue. Guilty as charged. With the city shimmering under high-summer heat, we’re steering readers toward cooler pleasures: museum halls lined with ceramics, shaded galleries and enough visual intrigue to rival a chilled bowl of “hoshaf,” the fruit compote.
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Thanks for reading,
Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)
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1. Leading the week: Extraordinary Minas
Ceramics Plate c. 1910- 1915, by Minas Avramidis. (Courtesy of Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation)
The Pera Museum, which has an impressive collection of Kutahya ceramics on permanent display on the first floor, now helps us discover a quietly dazzling Greek Orthodox ceramics master who signed his name only as Minas. No last name needed; though archivists will remind you it's Avramidis. His work speaks for itself: vivid, humorous, precise, and unmistakably his.
Minas Avramidis worked in early 20th-century Kutahya, at a time local craft had already declined due to the massive of production of ceramics from Europe and China in the 19th century. He turned humble glazed earthenware into narrative tableaux in tales of loyalty, patience and forgiveness.
Curator Yavuz Selim Guler places Avramidis not just as a ceramics master, but as a visual storyteller who freely reinterpreted classical motifs and drew inspiration from chromolithographs, photography and Christian legend. His "Genovefa" plate series stands out for both aesthetic and narrative sophistication. Produced in the 1910s on commission, the series exhibits a daring play with form and detail that remains fresh.
The “Extraordinary Minas” exhibition also speaks to diaspora. Like many Kutahya artisans, Minas relocated after the collapse of the Ottoman empire, teaching in Athens, producing in Florina, and finally settling in Thessaloniki. The show quietly tracks this migration of both people and style, revealing how Kutahya's tile tradition was not lost, but carried and reshaped across borders.
Minas’ extraordinary works. (Courtesy of Pera Museum)
Location: Pera Museum, Asmali Mescit, Mesrutiyet Cd. No:65, 34430 Beyoglu
2. Word on the street: Haci Abdullah
The cool summer compote. (Courtesy of Haci Abdullah)
Founded in 1888 by Abdullah Efendi, Haci Abdullah Lokantasi holds the distinction of being the first licensed restaurant in Turkey, with a royal permit from Sultan Abdulhamit II. Built on the semi-religious artisan guild, Ahi, whose values include hospitality and fairness, the restaurant passed from master to apprentice. Slow-roasted lamb is a classic but if you opt for something lighter, try the artichoke cooked in olive oil and the compote of fresh and stewed red fruits with raisins.
Location: Atif Yilmaz Caddesi No:9/A Beyoglu
3. Istanbul (and beyond) diary
“But I Remember Very Well How My Grandfather Enjoyed It,” by Mehmet Resul Kacar. (Courtesy of Gallery 77)Istanbul (and beyond) diary
At Karakoy, Galeri 77’s summer exhibition “Solstice” brings together the works of 19 artists drawing inspiration from ancient solstice rituals. It unfolds across styles from abstract to surreal, including Hakan Cinar’s hyperreal statue, “Secret.”
Nearby, at artSumer, “Summer Garden” gathers artists including CANAN, Gozde Ilkin, and Onur Gulfidan to reimagine the garden as both utopia and unease. Pleasure, beauty, and bloom meet fragility and fracture in this nuanced take on summertime idylls.
In the Mediterranean city of Antalya, as protests mount against the demolition of the city’s treasure trove, the Archaeological Museum of Antalya Culture and Arts hosts “Ilhan Koman: Towards the Mediterranean,” a retrospective of approximately 50 works by the pioneer of modern Turkish sculpture. Centered on his iconic piece “The Mediterranean,” the exhibition runs through Aug. 10.
4. Books of the week: “The Well of Trapped Words”
In Sema Kaygusuz’s “The Well of Trapped Words,” a small lunch turns into a surreal reckoning. A tough guy worries about the size of his shoes. A young bride watches her much older husband quietly starve himself to death. Kaygusuz, known for giving voice to the silenced and the strange, walks the line between myth and modernity, shame and survival in this collection of short stories. My favorite of all her works remains “Barbarin Kahkahasi” (“The Barbarian’s Laughter”), which follows a string of mysterious acts of vandalism in a middle-class holiday resort, and is still not translated into English.
5. Istanbul gaze
James Baldwin in Istanbul in 1965. ( Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Sedat Pakay)
In the 1960s, James Baldwin called Istanbul a “city that saved my life,” spending nearly ten years off and on in the city. He arrived in 1961, emotionally exhausted and broke — yet he found a creative haven, finishing “Another Country” there within two months. He became close with the Turkish artistic world — writers, actors, painters — as well as shopkeepers, students and people from all walks of life. Photographer Sedat Pakay, then a Yale student, filmed a haunting 1970 portrait of Baldwin in the city. Take a look at the 1970 film and a recent Le Monde article that retraced his years in Istanbul.
6. By the numbers
- As masses pack up their suitcases for summer vacation, here are some numbers. In 2024, Turkey printed 6.1 million passports, including 1.3 million special passports that allow visa-free Schengen travel. The previous year saw even higher demand, with nearly 8 million passports printed, including 1.8 million special ones, according to the General Directorate of the Mint and Stamp Printing House.
- As of 2025, the regular Turkish passport grants visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 114 countries, ranking 46th globally on the Henley Passport Index. Turkey is the only EU candidate country that requires a visa to travel to the Schengen area, despite recent EU arrangements to ease the visa rules.