“EBRISTANBUL” EXHIBITION 
THE OPENING CEREMONY - 18 MAY 2005
TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ART MUSEUM - SULTANAHMET

Each living creature in nature is disturbed by disorder and noise and finds peace in harmony and accord. The water that gives life to nature also has given life to the art of marbling for 1100 years owing to the harmony it creates with colors. Marbling Artist (Ebruzen) Hikmet Barutçugil’s gunpowder marblings are the magnificent produce of a 33-year work.

My purpose for buying the “Ebristanbul” collection that I met while it was being exhibited in Washington DC, where I had been to in order to participate in the meetings of the Turkish-American Business Council on April 17, 2003, is to convey these works of art from the present to the future as a whole, and, by standing as the protector of an art and culture style arising from the lands of our Ancestors, to deliver them to our grandchildren as a whole.

Having existed as a part of the Turkish culture since the 11th century, the art of marbling has survived to date from our ancestors by finding life in water and used as the paper of the important documents of our history. As an individual of the Turkish community, I consider it my duty to support this art and strengthen its existence.

I firmly believe that strengthening and encouraging the original Turkish arts that have first diminished and then tended to disappear as they proceeded from the past to the present, and making them known all around the world will be a great contribution to the Turkish art and culture.

I will be greatly proud to donate this “Ebristanbul” collection, which consists of total of 138 pieces composed of very beautiful examples of the art of marbling that is one of the leading elements of the Turkish history, to a state museum and thus to see that they will be protected eternally.