Genovefa and Minas: The Revival of Narrative Painting in Kütahya Ceramics

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 7, 203 - 209, 30.12.2025

Yavuz Selim Güler

https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.1843559

https://izlik.org/JA89JJ38JJ

Öz

On December 18, 2007, a unique group of Kütahya plates appeared on the art market. They came from the collection of Jean Louis Thau, a famous collector who traveled around the souqs of Fez in his red Volvo and amassed a reputable Moroccan jewelry collection. In addition to this collection, Monsieur Thau had a passion for Islamic art, within the scope of which he acquired the four Kütahya ceramic plates shortly before his death. Depicting the popular folk tale of Genovefa, the plates were all signed by Minas Avramidis, a renowned ceramics master of Kütahya. After a fierce bidding process, the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation acquired the plates at auction and included them in its Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics Collection, one of the foundation’s three collections housed at Pera Museum.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Kütahya , Minas Avramidis , Pera Museum , Kütahya Ceramics , Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation

Kaynakça

• Christie’s, “Quatre plats par Menas Avraamolou (Mina Avramidis), 1877–1954,” lot 39 in Live Auction 5505: Arts d’Orient, incluant l’exceptionnelle collection de bijoux du Maroc de Monsieur Thau, Paris, 18 December 2007, https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5018774. Sanaa Afous, “Jean-Louis Thau: Grand collectionneur de bijoux marocains,” Come4News, 15 October 2012, https://come4news.com/jean-louis-thau-grand-collectionneur-de-bijoux-marocains/. Previously, these plates were featured in two exhibitions at Pera Museum—one permanent and one temporary. They were part of the permanent collection exhibition Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics between 2008 and 2014. In 2023, marking the centennial of the Republic of Türkiye, the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation organized a temporary exhibition curated by Ulya Soley, entitled Souvenirs of the Future; the plates were displayed in Memory of Objects, one of the exhibition’s four thematic sections.