Not Just İzmir’s Exhibition, but Türkiye’s: “Lumina: The Art of Colour and Light” Opens in İzmir
The first major exhibition of the five-year collaboration between Arkas Sanat and Centre Pompidou, “Lumina: The Art of Colour and Light,” has opened at the Lucien Arkas Art Centre in İzmir. Bringing together 83 works from the Centre Pompidou collection, the exhibition traces the changing role of colour and light in modern and contemporary art.
İzmir is now home to a major selection of works from one of the world’s leading collections of modern and contemporary art. The first major exhibition resulting from a five-year collaboration between Arkas Sanat and Centre Pompidou, “Lumina: The Art of Colour and Light” has opened at the newly established Lucien Arkas Art Centre.
The exhibition brings together 83 works from the Centre Pompidou collection, featuring artists including Georges Braque, Vassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Richter, Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely. Through these works, the exhibition explores how artists have approached colour and light across different periods and artistic movements, highlighting their changing roles in modern and contemporary art.
Curated by Anna Hiddleston and Noémie Fillon, the exhibition will remain on view until 14 February 2027.
“Art cannot belong to a single city”
Speaking at the press conference held at the Lucien Arkas Art Centre, Lucien Arkas, Chairman of Arkas Holding, emphasised the significance of the collaboration for İzmir and Arkas Sanat.
Reflecting on the decision to bring a major selection from the Centre Pompidou collection to İzmir, Arkas described the exhibition as an opportunity to make contemporary art more accessible to a wider audience.
“Art cannot belong to a single city; art belongs to everyone. This is not İzmir’s exhibition, but Türkiye’s exhibition,” Arkas said, highlighting his hope that the project would encourage visitors of different ages to engage with contemporary art and develop a deeper curiosity about it.
“İzmir is light, İzmir is colour”
Laurent Le Bon, President of Centre Pompidou, described “Lumina” as an important opening chapter in the institutions’ long-term partnership.
The exhibition, he noted, establishes the tone for what is intended to be an ambitious and distinctive five-year collaboration. Speaking about the choice of İzmir as the setting for the project, Le Bon said: “İzmir is light, İzmir is colour.”
He also expressed his pleasure at bringing works from the Centre Pompidou collection to audiences in Türkiye and visitors from around the world, while acknowledging the close collaboration between the teams of Arkas Sanat and Centre Pompidou.
A new chapter in cultural exchange between France and Türkiye
Nadia Fanton, Consul General of France in Istanbul, highlighted the exhibition’s significance within the broader cultural relationship between France and Türkiye.
Welcoming the presentation of works from the Centre Pompidou collection in İzmir, Fanton described the city as a fitting location for an exhibition of this scale. She also recognised Lucien Arkas’s contribution to cultural exchange between France and Türkiye and the development of the five-year programme.
An exhibition created specifically for the new art centre
According to Müjde Unustası, Director of Arkas Sanat, the themes of colour and light have a particularly strong connection with İzmir. She emphasised the institution’s ambition to make the exhibition accessible to visitors of all ages.
Jean Luc Maeso, International Exhibitions Advisor at Arkas Sanat, noted that the exhibition was conceived specifically for the Lucien Arkas Art Centre. The curatorial approach takes the architecture and spatial qualities of the new venue into consideration, creating a dialogue between the artworks and the building itself.
Anna Hiddleston, Curator of International Projects at the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, explained that “Lumina” and the exhibitions planned to follow were developed specifically for the Lucien Arkas Art Centre.
Rather than simply presenting works from the Centre Pompidou collection in a new location, the collaboration allows the curatorial teams to reinterpret the collection through new themes and unexpected relationships between works.
With “Lumina: The Art of Colour and Light,” the Centre Pompidou collection meets İzmir through a dialogue centred on colour, light and artistic experimentation. The exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to explore how these two fundamental elements have shaped modern and contemporary artistic practices across generations.
“Lumina: The Art of Colour and Light” is on view at the Lucien Arkas Art Centre in İzmir until 14 February 2027.
