How do Conservative and Islamic Art Audiences Define Good Taste? Cultural Classifications at the Crossroads of Morality, Religion, and Politics in Turkey

This study explores how conservative/Islamic art audiences in Turkey describe and classify good taste in art and how their cultural repertoires inform their notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Despite the significant popular attention conservative art and its associated taste communities have received with the rise of political Islam, little is known about how such art is understood by its audience or its position within existing taste hierarchies. Drawing on cultural classification literature, our analysis of 36 interviews with conservative/Islamic art audiences in Turkey addresses this gap through an inductive, qualitative approach. The findings reveal three modes of appreciation – eclectic, moralist, and cosmopolitan – each associated with different levels of identification with conservative taste communities, challenging assumptions about the existence of a homogeneous conservative art audience. This study also provides a nuanced view of how political and moral values influence aesthetic judgements and create unique strategies for boundary-making and boundary-crossing, contributing to discussions on localised forms of cultural eclecticism and exclusion.