Postcard from Istanbul, Turkey: Women approach art from different directions

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A Turkish postage stamp featuring an illustration of women, the Turkish flag, and a historical building, representing themes of women's rights and society.

Above: “Femen/Kabatas,” Esra Carus, cardboard cutout, 2016

During a trip in Kabataş, a woman claimed that she and her baby were attacked by about ten half-naked men…. She held a demonstration on the balcony of a hotel in Paris…. It was impossible not to relate with the half-naked show of Femen girls….”

Esra Carus (1968-), Instagram (AI translation)

Two women posing together in front of a cardboard cutout artwork, one wearing a hijab and the other with long dark hair, both smiling amidst a gallery setting.
Above: Translator (left) and Esra Carus during “Grief. Law. Prohibition,” Depo Gallery

We wandered around the streets of the Tophane to Depo Istanbul without much of a clue about what art we’d encounter inside the former tobacco warehouse, renovated in 2008. We were met with “Yas. Yasa. Yasak,” or “Grief. Law. Prohibition,” and immediately were struck by strong, strident imagery.

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Postcard from Marseille, France: Cantini’s insider to outsider art

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A close-up view of a postmarked envelope featuring various stamps, including a red priority mail stamp and green stamps depicting abstract figures, along with handwritten details and doodles.
Above: Postal art incorporated in a collage by Louis Pons.

Above: “Les Fleurs et le Matin,” Alfred Lombard (1884-1973), 1913

I kill time with the strokes of the pen…. It will take a long time.”

Louis Pons (1927-2021)

A palace built at the tail end of the 17th century by wealthy trade merchants was acquired a century later by the artistic son of a stonemason. With a ready supply of fine marble at hand, Jules Cantini’s (1826-1916) attraction to sculpture was only natural. He designed altars for some of Marseille’s most important churches.

A statue atop a monument stands in a park with people seated at tables below it, surrounded by trees and a blue sky.
1894 “Monument des Mobiles” funded by Jules Cantini.

Retaining the profitable marble business of his father, Jules began to assemble a major art collection. For his native city, Cantini underwrote the construction of a landmark fountain and memorial designed by architect Gaudensi Allar (1841-1904) and dedicated to the citizens who perished during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.

Cantini bequeathed his home to the Marseilles for use as a museum dedicated to decorative arts. The city opened the museum in 1936, eventually spotlighting emerging trends in French art from 1900-1980. A random sampling of works are found below.

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Postcard from Padua, Italy: Pairing vini and cicchetti

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A colorful Italian postage stamp featuring a bottle pouring wine into a glass surrounded by grapevines.

Above: Frascoli Bacaro

Let’s start with a bacaro. A bacaro is a food stop offering cicchetti with wine where it’s perfectly acceptable to stand around chatting while consuming both.

Cicchetti? Think tapas or pinxtos. A wonderful social concept, but I really prefer to consume a pleasant lunch sitting down. And the bacaros we sampled in Padua met that desire well.

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