Seeing 1 World Trade Center: An Artist’s Views
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Three years ago, Joseph Bilger, an artist who has lived on Warren Street for nearly 30 years, was struck by a rare illness along with broken vertebrae. After surgery, the doctors advised him to walk around his neighborhood and to stretch his neck and look up.
Bilger took their advice and what he saw, everywhere he went, was 1 World Trade Center, rising on the skyline. As he regained his strength and lengthened his walks, he began drawing the emerging tower, each time from a different angle.
Twenty-six of his paintings, all a modest 12 x12 inches, are on display at Front Art Space, an equally modest space at 118 Chambers Street (it is 48 square feet) to Nov. 16.
“The World Trade Center was conspicuous by its absence,” Bilger said. “It was something always seen, kind of like a lighthouse. This tower is a new object in the neighborhood, a new landmark.”
The show’s title, “100 Famous Views of Ego” is a play on words on the famous 19th-century series of Japanese woodblock prints, “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo,” a favorite of Bilger’s.
The artist’ goal is to make 100 views of the tower; he has 60 more to go. “It might take a couple of years,” he said. But he is in no hurry.
Front Art Space, Tuesday to Friday, 2–7 pm.