Although the subject of émigrés from the former Russian Empire in Constantinople/Istanbul has been studied extensively, the lives and works of Russian-speaking émigré artists in early 20th-century Constantinople/Istanbul - painters, sculptors and others - have not been thoroughly examined. So far, many articles and academic talks on this topic have contained misconceptions, often rooted in a lack of reliable sources. Was Constantinople truly poor in terms of émigré artistic activities? Was Constantinople merely a transit point with no impact on the émigré artists? Did they live and work in isolation, confined to their own émigré circle? Based on her extensive research (during which she discovered previously unknown written and visual materials from archives and collections across various countries), Ekaterina Aygün addresses these and other questions, offering a fresh perspective on the topic.
