ARTIST SERIES

“Tohu-bohu” is a series of paintings by French-American painter John Bailly that explores the origin of western civilization by reconstructing the Nile river in 14 separate paintings.

Bailly questions whether the Nile is the origin of Egypt? Is Egypt the origin of Western civilization? Could the Nile therefore be the origin of Western civilization? He considers whether and how the natural environment determines culture, and whether nature has an underlying mathematical order. To follow, could civilization also have an underlying mathematical order, and if so, might nature and civilization share a related underlying mathematical order?