ASLANAPA, Oktay

Historiographer of arts (b. 17 December 1914, Kütahya). He attended the Bursa High School (1934) and graduated from İstanbul University, Faculty of Literature and from the School of Teacher Training (1938). He was successful in the exam held by the Ministry of National Education and was sent to Germany to study Turkish-Islamic arts. He worked at Marburg/Lahn University for some time. After military service, he was sent to Vienna University and became a doctor here (1943). His doctorate thesis was “Die Osmanischen Beitrage Zur Islamischen Baukunst” (Contributions of Ottomans to the Islamic Architecture). The same year, he was appointed as an assistant to the Chair of History of Art at İstanbul University. Here, he studied with his professor Ernst Diez from Vienna.

He became an associate professor with his thesis Osmanlılar Devrinde Kütahya Çinileri (Ceramics in Kütahya during the Ottoman Era) in 1948 and a professor and the Head of the Chair of History of Art in 1960. In 1963, he established the Chair of Turkish-Islamic Art. In 1977, he was appointed as the Director of the Institute of History of Art. He worked as a lecturer at İstanbul University with the title of professor of art history, as the Head of the Chair of Turkish-Islamic Art and as the Director of the Institute of Art History (1943-83). He retired in 1983.

His articles appeared in the reviews Türk Kültürü (1963-66, 72), Sanat Tarihi Yıllığı (1965, 68, 70-71, 73), Archeology (New York, 1971) and İstanbulen Mitteilungen 12 Tülingen (1962). He has also published some works in German, on archeology, ceramics and Turkish rugs.

MAIN WORKS:

Osmanlı Devrinde Kütahya Çinileri (Ceramics in Kütahya during the Ottoman Era, 1949), Edirne’de Osmanlı Devri Abideleri (Monuments from the Ottoman Era in Edirne, 1949), Turkish Art and Architecture (London, New York, 1971), Selçuklu Sanatı Bibliyografyası (Bibliography of Seljukian Arts, 1971), Türk Halı Sanatı (The Art of Turkish Carpets, 1972), Türk Çini ve Seramik Sanatı (Turkish Arts of Ceramics and Tiles, in Turkish and German, 1965), Kıbrıs’ta Türk Eserleri (Turkish Monuments in Cyprus, 1975), Yüzyıllar Boyunca Türk Sanatı-14.Yüzyıl (Turkish Arts through the Centuries-14th century, 1977), Kırım ve Kuzey Azerbaycan’da Türk Eserleri (Turkish Monuments in Crimea and Azerbaijan, 1979), Türk Dünyası Kültür Haritaları (Cultural Maps of the Turkish World, Volume 1: History and Organization, 1983), Osmanlı Devri Mimarisi (Architecture in the Ottoman Times, 1986), Türk Halı Sanatının 1000. Yılı (A Millennium of the Turkish Art of Making Carpets, 1987), Mimar Sinan Hayatı ve Eserleri (Mimar Sinan, His Life and Works, 1988), Türkiye’de Avusturyalı Sanat Tarihçileri ve Sanatkârlar (Australian Historiographers of Art and Artists in Türkiye, 1993).