Exhibitions2017Turkish Tulips (Museum Van Loon)

Museum Van Loon invited Gavin Turk to curate the exhibition Turkish Tulips. Turk presented a transhistorical dialogue between contemporary art and the history of the Van Loon family. The family already traded with the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) in the sixteenth century.

These early trade routes inspired Turk to examine the trading route of the tulip from Turkey to the Netherlands. Together with The House of Fairytales, Turk invited a group of fellow international artists to show their work – with the tulip as a main symbol – alongside Turk’s work. Featured artists included Damien Hirst, Michael Craig-Martin, Cornelia Parker, Sir Peter Blake, Fiona Banner, Mat Collishaw, Adam Dant and Yinka Shonibare MBE.