Özlem Simsek (Turkish, b. 1962)
Lot 192

Özlem Simsek (Turkish, b. 1962)

Self-portrait as Lady with a Cigarette (After Ibrahim Çalli)

Closed24 October 2012

Price Realised

USD 2,500

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Özlem Simsek (Turkish, b. 1962)
Self-portrait as Lady with a Cigarette (After Ibrahim Çalli)
signed 'Özlem Simsek' (on a label affixed to the reverse)
archival inkjet print
27½ x 47¾in. (70 x 120cm.)
Executed in 2011-2012, this work is number two from an edition of three plus one artist's proof

Specialist note

'My photographs and videos are based on masterpieces of Modern Turkish art history. Using myself as the model, I wear costumes and perform mimics and roles of the women whom we see in these paintings. The work entitled Lady With A Cigarette was inspired by the famous Turkish painter Ibrahim Calli's work from the 1920s entitled Portrait of a Woman, in which we see the depiction of a beautiful woman holding a cigarette and staring at us in a gloomy way. This depiction is a combination of the modern Ottoman-Turkish woman's image and the orientalist painting tradition. I follow myths about femininity and play with them. I see these roles such as costumes which can be worn; removable, transportable. This process forces myths to disclose and helps myths to betray themselves.'
(Özlem Simsek, 2012.)