Dear Sera

On the ninth anniversary of his passing, we commemorate Faruk Sade, one of the founders of Galeri Siyah - Beyaz, with a letter he wrote to his daughter, Sera Sade

Left: Sade Family, Siyah-Beyaz, Ankara, 1988 Right: Sade Family, Bodrum, Muğla, 2014

 Your mother, and I spent twenty years -which might be considered the most productive years of one’s life- at Siyah/Beyaz where we started one year before you were born. When I look back I see many beautiful things that we have experienced. We have organized many exhibitions and activities and we have shared those with our artists and with our friends. At that time perhaps you got angry with us as we were unable to give you enough of our time. Yet you have always been there with us and took part in those beautiful events.

Our aim was to establish Siyah/Beyaz as an institution and serve our country’s contemporary art. We may have made some mistakes and may have had some resentment. But we wanted, with everything in our power, to achieve some “firsts” in Turkey. To be able to encourage the young people has always been very important to Siyah/Beyaz. Through the awards that we have given and the exhibitions that we have opened we have tried to encourage the ones who devoted themselves to this task. I think, some of these young people were only there just to obtain a university degree. It was not entirely their fault, it was only what they knew. They were completely unaware of the requirements of art. That was not taught to them either. As to the ones who tried to learn outside (the educational institutions) had neither any museums to go to nor any publications readily available to read. These, in fact, they still do not have.

Within the framework of RES -ARTIS in which we took part as the only participant from Turkey we hosted artists from France at our Artist-Residence in Sultanahmet in Istanbul. We tried to demonstrate Contemporary Turkish Art. We sent, on our turn, our artists to France. We managed to survive despite a lot of difficulties in our country. T he fact that art galleries that should have been fully developed within the past two decades are still trying to survive with the support of only a few individuals and institutions is of course a situation to ponder on. Due to the plastic arts policies of our successive governments by which they promoted the higher schools of art and faculties of art almost in every city without any infrastructure and with meager educational staff unfortunately we remained at the back rows in the world in this field. You had the opportunity to observe yourself that if it were not for the sacrifices of our artists -many of whom you had chance to get to know- we would not have been able to carry on that long.

Dear Sera, I know that you would like to get involved with art. I believe that what we have experienced together will contribute to you as far as the world of art is concerned. Art is a way of life. It requires sincerity, innocence and knowledge. It is not only our desire but it is also our aim to be able to live under this name another fifty years.

I would like you to know that I am proud of you at least as much as Siyah/Beyaz.

I do hope that everything will be BETTER (in the future)

June 2003, Ankara