The National Frame
Art and State Violence in Turkey and Germany

Banu Karaca (Author)

9780823290208

Hardback, published 2 February 2021

288 pages, 22 b/w illustrations
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.606 kg

Based on long-term ethnographic research in the art worlds of Istanbul and Berlin, The National Frame rethinks the politics of art by focusing on the role of art in state governance. It argues that artistic practices, arts patronage and sponsorship, collecting and curating art, and the modalities of censorship continue to be refracted through the conceptual lens of the nation-state, despite the globalization of the arts. By examining discussions of the civilizing function of art in Turkey and Germany and particularly moments in which art is seen to cede this function, The National Frame reveals the histories of violence on which the production, circulation, and, very understanding of art are predicated.
Karaca examines this darker side of art in two cities in which art and its institutions have been intertwined with symbolic and material dispossession. The particularities of German and Turkish contexts, both marked by attempts to claim modern nationhood through the arts; illuminate how art is staked to memory and erasure, resistance and restoration; and why art has been at once vital and unwieldy for national projects. As art continues to be called upon to engage the past and imagine different futures, The National Frame explores how to reclaim art's emancipatory potential.

Introduction: Intimate Encounters 1
1 Modernity, Nationalism, and Civilizing the Arts 29
2 Art Worlds: Of Friends, Foes, and Working for the Greater Good 56
3 Governing Culture, Producing Modern Citizens 90
4 The Art of Forgetting 120
5 The Politics of Art and Censorship 153
6 Enterprising Art, Aestheticizing Business 182
Instead of a Conclusion: Meeting, Again 209
Acknowledgments 221
Notes 225
References 255
Index 279