Arkas presents carpet collection in historic mansion

ISTANBUL

Arkas, which has undertaken the restoration of the historic Mattheys Mansion in İzmir, is now presenting a selection from the Arkas Carpet Collection at the Arkas Art Bornova Mattheys Mansion, which it opened inside the mansion as its fourth art center in the city.

The mansion is one of Bornova’s mansions that stand out with its history and architecture.

The exhibition, titled “16th-19th Century Anatolian Carpets,” offers a selection of valuable carpets from the Arkas Carpet Collection in order to promote Western Anatolian carpet-making to the world.

Anatolian Carpets produced between the 16th and 19th centuries in Western and Central Anatolia in Uşak, Çanakkale, Bergama, Konya, Karapınar, Akhisar, Gördes, Kula and Milas, are brought together in the selection in Arkas Sanat Bornova Mattheys Mansion.

The hand-woven carpets are considered among the best hand-made carpets in the world thanks to the centuries-old weaving tradition in this geography. The exhibition reveals the relationship between these carpets in terms of design and use of motifs, according to a statement made by the center.

Speaking at the opening of the Mattheys Mansion and the exhibition, Arkas Holding CEO Lucien Arkas said, “I want İzmir to become a city of art. We are opening our fourth art center in 12 years. We have more ongoing projects. What and where you exhibit is important and I am a classicist. We mainly collect works from the 18th to the early 20th centuries and we would like to display them in the environments of the period in which they were produced.”

Stating that the art of carpet making, like these historical mansions, has almost been forgotten, Arkas said, “We are trying to keep this forgotten art and historical-cultural values alive. Carpet is a great passion for me and a very important cultural value of this land. I enriched the carpets of my family with antique carpets that I bought in the early 1990s.”

“The Arkas Carpet Collection now includes rare examples of the art of carpet. The collection is mainly from Western Anatolia in the 16th-19th centuries. We exhibit a selection of 75 carpets. Previously, we held two temporary exhibitions in İzmir and Istanbul to promote the art of carpets, but they will be exhibited here permanently and the content of the exhibition will be renewed every three years,” Arkas added.