The İşbank Museum of Painting and Sculpture opened the doors of its new temporary exhibition on September 20. Titled Side by Side, the show brings together works by two significant couples of the Turkish art scene: Melahat and Eşref Üren, and Eren and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu.
Side by Side not only traces the lives and practices of these artist couples but also presents the intersections of their artistic journeys. The unique sensibilities of Eren Eyüboğlu and Melahat Üren converge with the expressive voices of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu and Eşref Üren, weaving a polyphonic art history. Inviting audiences into both the shared lives of the couples and the individual worlds of the four artists, the exhibition reflects on what it means to be “side by side”: creating together, nurturing one another, and remembering the unseen labor behind art.
Spanning two floors of the museum, the exhibition brings together works from the İşbank Art Collection and pieces on loan from private collections, grouped around different themes. Alongside paintings, letters, caricatures, poems, sketches, and archival documents enrich the display, offering visitors a layered and multifaceted narrative. On the museum’s third floor, works by Melahat and Eşref Üren are presented under the curatorship of Dr. Ali Kayaalp, while the second floor hosts the works of Eren and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, curated by Ömer Faruk Şerifoğlu.
Zuhal Üreten, General Manager of İş Sanat, noted that the İşbank Museum of Painting and Sculpture will mark its third anniversary with this new temporary exhibition. She emphasized that such exhibitions allow the collection to be revisited through new perspectives and themes while also enabling collaborations with other collections. Speaking about Side by Side, she remarked:
“These two parallel exhibitions, which offer the chance to see the works of Melahat and Eşref Üren together with those of Eren and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu within the frame of ‘sharing art and life with its joys and challenges,’ bring a stronger focus on the production of women artists. I hope this focus sheds light on the path of women’s labor in both art and life.”
