Back	At the Voyvoda Street Istanbul Lectures this month: Istanbul and the Orientalists Prof. Zeynep İnankur, from the History of Art Department of the School of Fine Arts, at Istanbul Mimar Sinan University, is our guest speaker, this April, at the Voyvoda Street Istanbul Lectures. Her lecture, scheduled for Wednesday, April 28, at 6:30 p.m., will focus on Istanbul, as pictured by Orientalist painters, in a period prior to the actual emergence of Turkish painting. "With the growing appeal of the East for 19th century Europe, Istanbul became the undisputed center of attention of Western painters, who discovered there an entire new field of inspiration" says İnankur. "In these Orientalist depictions of Istanbul, the subjects treated were all those common to 19th century travel accounts; ceremonies, dervishes, hamam scenes, slave markets, coffee houses, landscapes and popular excursion spots. In their renditions of these new themes set in exotic surroundings, Orientalist artists attempted to convey the far-off charm of an Eastern city as yet untouched by modernization. However, these works should not only be viewed as romanticized Western conceptions of the Orient; they are also significant documents of the lifestyle, customs and various aspects of 19th century Istanbul, at a time before Turkish painting really existed." For more information on the program of free lectures offered by the Museum, please contact the Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Center at: (212) 292 76 05.