Institute of Arab and Islamic Art, NYC, presents Bilgé’s ‘Torn Time’

The Institute of Arab and Islamic Art (IAIA), founded by Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani, is presenting Torn Time, the first institutional solo exhibition of Bilgé (1934 – 2000) in the United States. Opened in the institute’s spaces in New York (May 6 – Aug. 31), the show, curated by Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani, unveils two decades of Bilgé’s work, tracing her unwavering relationship to nature through her diverse, deep and delicate approach to drawing.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Bilgé’s desire to become an artist landed her in New York in 1958, where she completed her master’s in painting at NYU. As a female immigrant, she navigated an artistic landscape that perceived her as ‘other’ - yet defied social expectation by remaining in the US.

The show explores Bilgé’s engagement with line and space, exploring scale, nature, fiction and geometry, connecting with experiences of alienation and exaltation. In 1972, Bilgé emerged from a deep-sea dive into The Tongue of the Ocean, a deep water region in the Bahamas, with a shifted perspective.

Influenced by her metaphysical encounters with nature, her work evolved from figurative painting to an exploration of the “spacelessness of space.” She began producing planar works, book-like objects which examined the materiality of paper.

Untitled work (Cosmos Pastel I).

She developed a disciplined, reductive vocabulary, packed with emotion, elements of which included tear, string, square and line. But inside the sparse language resides the potential for endless variation, and the characteristic transcendentalism of the artist’s work that departs from American minimalism. Slits and tears in the paper attempt to make visible the invisible, the layers and fibers of the material evoking the unpredictability of life itself.

While her work examines the infinite potential of the line, the forces that drive it bring to the fore acts of expanding and shrinking, evidenced in her artist’s books, which must be unfolded and spread out to be experienced before being packed up again. Bilgé invites the vastness of the universe to share space within the boundaries of her work, without sacrificing the magnitude of its glory. By reorienting the understanding of space, she harnesses the possibilities of nature within her work. Through a skillful grasp of minimalism, Bilgé both ossifies and dissolves boundaries, exploring the intimate and ethical potentialities of abstraction.

Bilgé, also known as Bilgé Civelekoğlu Friedlaender, was a Turkish-American artist who extensively explored sensual, spiritual connections through her artistic engagement with geometric abstraction. In her long and prolific career, her artistic exploration developed through an expressive minimalist visual language. In her journals, she spoke of the universal human creations of the “line,” the “square,” and how they symbolise human relationship to nature. Bilgé’s career launched with solo exhibitions of minimalist works in 1974 at Betty Parsons and Kornblee Galleries in New York.

A picture of Torn Time.

Her transformative experiences of nature and early earthworks set the stage for her later ecological works in the 1980s, leading to interventions in nature, and working directly with natural materials. She was part of New American Paperworks and exhibited alongside Robert Rauschenberg and Michelle Stewart, among others. She continued to exhibit internationally through the 1990s, with works centering on awakening the human consciousness to our interdependence with nature, through exploration of ritual and the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh from a Feminist, Jungian position.

Exhibition venues included Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; the Second International Istanbul Biennial, Gallery Nev, Istanbul; American Craft Museum, NY; Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto; University of Massachusetts Museum at Amherst; Corcoran Museum, Washington D.C.; Arter, Istanbul and Neues Museum, Nürenberg. The Institute of Arab and Islamic Art (IAIA) is an independent, non-profit centre that promotes and advances the artistic and cultural dialogue between New York City and the Arab and Islamic worlds. It serves as a platform for creative, innovative and forward-thinking artists, curators, critics, scholars and intellectuals.

A work from Bilgé.

Through diverse education programmes, a multi-disciplinary exhibition space, knowledge-building facility, a residency programme and an emphasis on collaborations with global cultural organisations, IAIA provides a welcoming environment for the international community to learn about and engage with often over-simplified cultures. ​“The continued misconceptions of the Arab and Islamic worlds have limited and damaged cultural interactions and exchanges with the United States,” says IAIA. “The lack of facilities, resources and opportunities dedicated to Arab and Muslim artists in New York City has continued to alienate these individuals from a broader global conversation. IAIA establishes itself as a beacon to challenge social misconceptions and artistic stereotypes.”

Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani in front of an artwork.

To this end, IAIA fosters a dialogue between civilisations, while dissipating notions of borders by bringing to the fore a thorough appreciation of the Islamic region’s own Modern and Contemporary Art. Founded on the value of nurturing art, IAIA is dedicated to both the preservation and revival of Arab and Islamic art. IAIA presents works by artists from the Arab and Islamic worlds, including video art, traditional media, performances, archival exhibitions, installations and commissioned works. Curated, well-researched exhibitions are held on a quarterly basis with additional programming that includes a residency programme for artists, critics, curators and writers, to engage with New York’s art scene. “IAIA recognises the significance of creating knowledge and is therefore producing publications, screenings and lectures. IAIA shares resources, forges partnerships and collaborates with established institutions and foundations across the Arab and Islamic worlds as well as New York, bringing together ideas and creating opportunities,” the organisation says.