The contemporary fiber art of Stanley Bulbach, PhD embodies the arts, technologies, and traditions of the ancient civilizations upon which the modern East and West are founded.
ART EXHIBITION INTERWOVEN OVER MILLENNIA: EAST, WEST, ANCIENT AND NEW
Stanley Bulbach
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Stanley Bulbach’s contemporary imagery is expressed through the wool spinning, dyeing, and weaving of the ancient East, technologies that, for example, underlie modern computers and digital monitors. These age old utilitarian arts and technologies protected humanity from the elements. They also became artistic “canvases” on which the ancient cultures illustrated the world as they saw and understood it.
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Times Square, a flying carpet, approx. 6' x 3', handspun lustrous Lincoln wool, traditional vegetal dyes; ©Stanley Bulbach 2011 all rights reserved.
Bulbach entered NYU in 1966 with a strong background in mathematics and science and earned his BA at Washington Square in History of Religion (1969). He was then invited into the new graduate program at the Kevorkian where he earned his MA (1972) and PhD (1981) in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, specifically Assyriology, focusing on the history of ancient Mesopotamia including the cuneiform languages of Sumerian and Akkadian. While at NYU studying cuneiform archives, he was impressed with how the ancient wool industry advanced technologies, survival, finance, and international trade. For over half a century he has been a part of Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, which until recently had a large and vibrant Lebanese- and Syrian-American community. He was very active in the neighborhood associations, which further inspired the artistic interwoven connections of the East and West.
His solo exhibition in 2016 at the Hudson Guild was “The Interweave of the Near East and Chelsea.” He creates three types of flatwoven (tapestry or kilim-style) carpets: prayer carpets, carpet beds, and flying carpets. They are intended for the wall, protected and enjoyed as fine art.
To capture the traditional organic nature of this ancient Eastern art form, he works with rare wools from special flocks of Lincoln sheep and spins the yarns himself. He uses natural wool shades and ancient vegetal dyes to replicate the unique ancient palette.
Solo exhibitions of his art work include: the New York Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Greenwich Arts Council, the World Congress on Coloured Sheep, the Donnell Library, and others.
More information on Bulbach's art and writing is available at www.bulbach.com .
"Interwoven over Millennia: East, West, Ancient and New" can be viewed by the public at the Richard Ettinghausen Library from 9am to 12pm and from 1pm until 5pm,
Mondays-Fridays, starting Wednesday, November 20th.
(The exhibition will be dismounted starting at 3pm, Friday, December 6).
The Library will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on
Thursday and Friday, November 28 and 29.
A reception and talk will be held at the Richard Ettinghausen Library on
Tuesday, November 26 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.
The Richard Ettinghousen Library is immediately south of
Washington Square at 255 Sullivan Street, NYC.
(This notice has been updated on 11/11/19 to reflect changes in NYU’s schedule.)