Visual arts

Some artists anticipate the future without even being consciously aware of it themselves. The self-indulgent individualism of 1960s California, the youths splashing around in swimming pools in David Hockney's iconic paintings seem like they anticipated a future in which the working class adopted all the trapping of middle-class pleasures.

Restoration and excavation work has resumed at the Saint Simon Monastery in southern Turkey after a pause of 60 years, and the site will host tourists once it is completed.

The monastery, located in Hatay province, is believed to have been built in the 6th century by Saint Simon.

A figure of a "Seraphim Angel" on a ceiling of the Hagia Sophia Mosque has come to light on dismantling a scaffold that was inside the mosque for about seven years.

"We have completely demounted the scaffold today," said the officials on Nov. 22.

Retired Mehmet Keleş, who has been working voluntarily in the excavations of the Holy Apostles Church that he found in his garden in the eastern province of Hatay's Arsuz district, is happy to contribute his bit for bringing the cultural heritage to light.

A carpet trader, who collects hundreds of handmade carpets and rugs from across Anatolia, lays them out in the sun in Turkey's top tourism destination Antalya. 

Even after his death, artist Christo's dream project of wrapping up Paris' Arc de Triomphe in silvery-blue recyclable fabric will go ahead next year in line with his wishes, organisers said on June 2.    

From Paris's oldest bridge to Berlin's Reichstag, the Bulgarian-born artist spent decades wrapping landmarks and creating improbable structures around the world.    

Hobbies are great ways to explore areas of ourselves; we do not get to engage at work. You do not have to be good at a hobby to enjoy it. You just need to enjoy it. Not every hobby you try will be something that you want to stick with, but that is no reason not to try. Now is the perfect time to try out and pick up new hobbies for yourself that you can do at home.

Bulgarian-born artist Christo, best known for wrapping buildings and famous landmarks in fabric or plastic, has died at his home in New York, aged 84.

He passed away of natural causes on Sunday, according to a statement posted on the artist's official Facebook page.

Influential contemporary artist Hristo Vladimirov Javacheff "Christo" passed away of natural causes at the age of 84 in New York, his representatives announced little before midnight on May 31. "Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it," his office said.

Pera Museum, which has brought works by many famous artists to Turkey, now presents an important selection of its exhibitions on its YouTube channel. The video series include Frida Kahlo-Diego Rivera, Fernando Botero, Andy Warhol, Rembrandt, Goya and Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Miró and Yıldız Moran.