Beneath the Same Blue

Istanbul Modern presents Beneath the Same Blue, the museum’s 10th collection exhibition, bringing together more than 240 works by over 120 artists from Türkiye and around the world. Installed across the galleries, foyers, library and open spaces of the museum’s Renzo Piano Building Workshop–designed building, the exhibition spans more than eight decades of artistic production and includes 50 works on view for the first time. Curated by Çelenk Bafra, the Artistic Director, and Deniz Pehlivaner, Curator, the exhibition offers a renewed perspective on Istanbul Modern's collection while reflecting the museum's evolving approaches to collecting, research, and exhibition-making.

Beneath the Same Blue takes its title from a color that connects different geographies, histories, and experiences. Blue is considered not only as a visual element but also as a conceptual horizon evoking sea and sky, distance and proximity, memory and imagination. Within Renzo Piano’s transparent architecture overlooking the Bosphorus, the exhibition establishes visual and intellectual dialogues between works produced in different periods and cultural contexts. In doing so, it invites visitors to experience the collection as an evolving network of relationships rather than a fixed historical survey.

The exhibition is structured in two complementary sections. The first traces the development of modern and contemporary art in Türkiye from the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. Beginning with pioneering examples of abstraction, it follows the emergence of new artistic languages, changing approaches to figuration, and the social, political, and aesthetic questions that shaped successive generations of artists. The second section focuses primarily on works produced after 2000, bringing together artists from different generations and geographies through thematic constellations rather than a chronological sequence.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, featuring commissioned essays, titled “Expanding Horizon of the Museum: The Collection" by Çelenk Bafra, “Beneath the Same Blue” by Deniz Pehlivaner, and “Rethinking the Collection: On Time, Knowledge, and Representation” by Prof. Dr. Esra Aliçavuşoğlu. Together, these texts offer new perspectives on Istanbul Modern’s collection and its place within broader histories of modern and contemporary art.

Artists: Kuzgun Acar, Erdağ Aksel, Erol Akyavaş, Nevin Aladağ, Haluk Akakçe*, Ersin Alok, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Özlem Altın, Halil Altındere, Ghada Amer, Refik Anadol, Hakkı Anlı, Koray Ariş, Yüksel Arslan, Volkan Aslan, Tomur Atagök, Nancy Atakan, Vahap Avşar, Georg Baselitz, Bedri Baykam, Aliye Berger, Sabri Berkel, Burçak Bingöl, Albert Bitran, Mark Bradford, Lee Bul, Cihat Burak, Tülay Tura Börtecene, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Daniel Buren*, CANAN, Hussein Chalayan, Anthony Cragg, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Fulya Çetin, Adnan Çoker, Richard Deacon, Nejad Melih Devrim, Tiraje Dikmen, Şükriye Dikmen, Abidin Dino, Antonis Donef, Burhan Doğançay, İpek Duben, Mandy El-Sayegh, Âbidin Elderoğlu, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Neş’e Erdok, Cevdet Erek, Ayşe Erkmen, Erol Eskici, İnci Eviner, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, İnci Furni, Candeğer Furtun, Attila Galatalı, Leyla Gamsız, Leyla Gediz*, Liam Gillick, Guerrilla Girls, Tanya Goel, Katharina Grosse*, Deniz Gül, Ara Güler, Bedia Güleryüz, Mehmet Güleryüz, Neşet Günal, Nedim Günsür, Selma Gürbüz, Nilbar Güreş, Altan Gürman, Thilo Heinzmann*, Gözde İlkin, Ahmet Doğu İpek, Fatoş İrwen, Balkan Naci İslimyeli, Nuri İyem, Zeki Faik İzer, Mirak Jamal, Gülsün Karamustafa, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Komet, Füreya Koral, Azade Köker, Guillermo Kuitca*, Alicja Kwade, Renée Levi*, Julie Mehretu, Yıldız Moran, Sarah Morris, Hermann Nitsch*, Mahmoud Obaidi, Hans Op de Beeck, Julian Opie, Füsun Onur, Mübin Orhon, Kemal Önsoy, Serkan Özkaya, Claudia Pagès Rabal, Sedat Pakay, Bettina Pousttchi, Laure Prouvost, Anselm Reyle, Necla Rüzgar, Sarkis, Elif Saydam*, Thomas Scheibitz*, Yaşam Şaşmazer, Nevhiz Tanyeli, Ayça Telgeren, Hale Tenger, Güneş Terkol, Canan Tolon, Seyhun Topuz, F. Tülin, Vahit Tuna, Selim Turan, Ömer Uluç, Elif Uras, Burhan Uygur, Adrián Villar Rojas, Zhan Wang, Richard Wentworth, Nil Yalter, Haegue Yang, Fahrelnissa Zeid, Yılmaz Zenger.           

*2027 onwards

Istanbul Modern’s exhibitions in 2026
Panorama: Dreams and Places
until October 18, 2026
Semiha Berksoy: Aria of All Colors
until November 22, 2026
Renzo Piano: Genius Loci
until December 2027