Esin Atıl (June 11, 1938 – February 20, 2020) was a Turkish-American historian of

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

and

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of Islamic art at the

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and ...

Education

Esin Atıl graduated from the American College for Girls in Istanbul 1956 with BA degree. She received a second BA degree from the Western College for Women in 1958. She subsequently attended the

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate school for architecture, art, and design, was founded by George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. It is the art school of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Located in Bloomfield Hills, Mi ...

where she studied painting and pottery. Atıl continued to graduate-level studies at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

where she received her Ph.D. in 1969 with a thesis titled ''Surname-i Vehbi: An Eighteenth Century Ottoman Book of Festivals'' under the supervision of Oleg Grabar.

Career

Subsequent to her graduation, Atıl was appointed in 1970 to the position of the curator of Near Eastern Art at the

(

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

) in Washington, D.C., a position that she held until 1987. She continued working at the Freer Gallery in the position of Historian of Islamic Art until her retirement in 1993, following which she was appointed as a Research Associate. Her career is marked by a series of seminal and groundbreaking exhibitions of Islamic art, almost all of them accompanied by authoritative exhibition catalogues. A specialist in the history of Ottoman art, Esin Atıl was the curator for the first major exhibition of the subject held at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

in 1987. The exhibition was acclaimed as a milestone event, receiving both positive academic reviews and news coverage. The success of this exhibition especially led her to receive an honorary doctorate degree in 1987 from

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...

, citing her important contributions to the study of Turkish culture and history by means of seminal exhibitions and publications. In the same year, she also received the Grand Award for Culture and Art from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Turkey.

References

External links

Honoring Esin Atıl, a workshop held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atil, Esin Historians of Islamic art American women curators Turkish art curators Smithsonian Institution people American people of Turkish descent Alumni of Arnavutköy American High School for Girls 1937 births 2020 deaths Historians of Ottoman art American art curators 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American academics