Conceptual exhibitions were made with specifically selected or commissioned works concept rooms such as the Osmanlı Salonu Selçuklu Salonu and Delegate Admission Hall were created. Consisting of approximately 1000 works dating from the mid-1700s until today 100 of which are from European and orientalist artists and comprising mostly artists from Turkey of almost any period the Presidential Art Collection has become one of the collections that best reflect the development of Turkish painting and the level it has reached.
With this book which is the first of a three-volume series prepared to document this whole collection we wished to make visible through a selection of 600 works the history of contemporary art in our country and the artistic accumulation in the Presidential Collection for the first time. Independent texts were included concerning some of the prominent works and artists in the collection. By analyzing this selection it is possible to make many evaluations with regard to the past and present state of calligraphic art group movements and attitudes and the important changes that have occurred as well as the arts of painting and sculpture in Turkey.