Figen ŞENGÜL

The memory, which we shape with what we distill from the past in the pendulum of remembering and forgetting, ossifies its memories through images or buries them in the dark recesses of the mind to disappear. Remembering defines a process realized through images and carried forward to the future through the cultural memory codes formed by the works of cultural narrators such as bards, poets, painters and writers. These narrators are cultural ambassadors who open a window from the past to the future by ensuring the intergenerational transmission of the cultural memory that shapes the present by distilling the narratives and cultural codes of the past and the social memory that encompasses it. Social memory is shaped through the cultural memory in which these codes are constructed and formed. In this process, the images of the past in social memory, consisting of common experiences and memories, constitute an area of struggle involving the transfer of tradition to the future by shaping cultural memory through the reconstruction of cultural meaning transmission. History is revised to the extent of the memories of social groups, and what is desired to be remembered is reinforced and reminded in memory through rituals, commemorations, festivals and literary works. In this way, memory, which changes, transforms and articulates with the transmission from generation to generation, reveals the importance of remembering and challenging the fluidity of time by transferring memories to future generations. Although it is known that individuals today are exposed to the flow of information at every moment, the importance of the selectivity of memory in remembering and preserving what needs to be recorded emerges. At this point, the canonized works of the past facilitate the filtering of memory as they carry the historical texture and traces of the period to which they belong. Regarding what should be remembered, these works open a window to the past, refreshing the memory and establishing a connection between the past and the present. At this point, it can be said that canonized works refresh the memory of societies as they reflect the spirit of the period. Another characteristic of these works is their function of transmitting tradition to future generations. In this study, eight paintings of Osman Hamdi Bey's figural compositions, which include only female figures from different years from Tanzimat to II Constitutional Monarchy, were selected from the figural paintings in Cezar's work titled Opening to the West in Art Osman Hamdi Bey by purposeful sampling method. Each painting, which is believed to reflect the spirit of the period, elements of cultural and social memory, and the change in the image of women, painted in different years, will be evaluated with Pierce's semiotic analysis method. Regarding social and cultural memory, the quality of the memory spaces in the content of the paintings, the elements contained in the memory of objects, the components of memory and counter-memory, and the change in the image of women in the modernization process will be examined. The fluidity of pictures in the historical process will be analyzed.

Keywords: Osman Hamdi Bey, Woman Image, Social Memory, Cultural Memory, Semiotics, Painting