Nahit began his collection in 1980, acquiring works by artists from Turkey, Russia and Central Asia. He focused mainly on mid-career artists, and now there is no doubt that he gathered one of the most important Contemporary Art collections in Turkey.
The business that he developed made it possible for him to visit Russia and Azerbaijan frequently; and the artists of these countries became the first he collected after Turkish artists. Nahit bought the works that he liked of those artists who were already represented in galleries or museums, but were not yet considered by collectors to be “blue chips”.
Now the collection is managed by his daughter Huma, who has increased the number of works to 800 (196 artists from 28 countries), focusing her choice on video art, installations, and works by female artists.
Among the Russian artists in Kabakcı’s collection are: Ilya Kabakov, Aidan Salakhova, Alexander Kosolapov’s silkscreen print “MALEVICH”, (by the way, this silkscreen print is on sale at http://jart.market/en/), Leonid Tkachenko, Lev Tabenkin, Boris Milyukov, Ivan Lubennikov and other artists, many of whom have long been ranked among the established artists.
