Istanbul's Hidden Gems: Rüstem Paşa Mosque, Archaeological Museums, and Istanbul Modern

A travel guide to Istanbul highlights three cultural sites: the Rüstem Paşa Mosque in Tahtakale, designed by Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan (1489/90-1588), renowned for its 16th-century Iznik tilework featuring tulip motifs in arabesque style with unusual red outlines. The Istanbul Archaeological Museums in Sultanahmet, housed in a neoclassical building by Alexandre Vallaury (1850-1921), display finds from Heinrich Schliemann's Troy excavations and a fragment from the Tetrarchs' porphyry group at St. Mark's in Venice. The Istanbul Modern museum in Tophane, with labyrinthine white interiors reminiscent of the Centre Pompidou, presents its permanent collection in "Past and Future," tracing Turkish art from the early 1900s. Featured artists include Halil Paşa (1852-1939) with female nude studies, Nuri İyem (1915-2005) with "Peasant Women" (1939), Burhan Uygur (1940-1992) with "The Door," Bedri Baykam (1957) with "Inges, Gerome, This is my Bath" (1987), Selma Gürbüz (1969) with "Purgatory" (2010), and Erdağ Aksel (1953) with "Suzan II" (1999-2000), a ready-made of wooden measuring tapes on a carpenter's tripod. The article emphasizes that Istanbul Modern resists Western assimilation, contrasting with Guggenheim and Louvre projects in the Arab world.