Background
Bowling was born in Bartica, British Guiana (now Guyana), on February 29, 1936. His father was a police district paymaster and his mother - a seamstress.
2005
Frank Bowling in 2005.
2008
London, United Kingdom
Frank Bowling in his studio.
2012
London, United Kingdom
Frank Bowling, photographed by the artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin at his home in London.
2015
London, United Kingdom
Frank Bowling in his London Studio. Photograph by Charlie Littlewood.
2017
London, United Kingdom
Frank Bowling, photographed in his studio in London in April 2017. Photo by Alastair Levy
16 John Islip St, Westminster, London SW1P 4JU, UK
Bowling was a student of the Chelsea School of Art (later known as Chelsea College of Arts).
Kensington Gore, Kensington, London SW7 2EU, UK
Frank Bowling studied at the Royal College of Art in London, from 1959 to 1962, from which he graduated with the silver medal.
45-65 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UF, UK
Bowling was a tutor at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (now Camberwell College of Arts) between 1963 and 1983.
Reading, United Kingdom
Frank Bowling served as a lecturer at the University of Reading from 1964 till 1966.
116th St & Broadway, New York, NY 10027, United States
Bowling worked as an instructor at the Columbia University during 1968-1969.
2 College St, Providence, RI 02903, USA
Frank Bowling occupied the position of an artist in residence at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1974 to 1975.
209 E 23rd St, New York, NY 10010, USA
Between 1975 and 1976 Frank Bowling held the post of lecturer at the School of Visual Arts, New York.
Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AA, UK
During the period of 1975-1986, Bowling served as a tutor at the Byam Shaw School of Art (now part of Central Saint Martins).
1 Art School Road, Skowhegan, ME 04950, Madison, ME 04950, United States
Bowling was appointed artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, in 1984.
Bowling was elected a member of England's Royal Academy of Arts on May 26, 2005.
London, United Kingdom
Frank Bowling in his studio in South London. Photograph David Levene.
Frank Bowling surrounded by his works.
Frank Bowling with his artworks.
Frank Bowling working in his studio.
Frank Bowling. Photograph by David Levene.
Portrait of Frank Bowling. Photography by Jäger Arén.
The artist in his later years.
Bowling was born in Bartica, British Guiana (now Guyana), on February 29, 1936. His father was a police district paymaster and his mother - a seamstress.
Frank Bowling moved to England in 1950, where he lived with an uncle and completed his high school education. He was enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1953. During his service, Bowling befriended several art students with whom he frequently visited London’s National Gallery. These visits inspired him to pursue painting. In the late 1950s, Bowling's works attracted the attention of artist Carel Weight, who encouraged him to apply to art school.
Despite his earlier ambitions to be a poet and a writer, Bowling became a student of the Chelsea School of Art (later known as Chelsea College of Arts). In 1959 he won a scholarship to London's Royal College of Art, where his fellow students included such artists as David Hockney, R. B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier, Allen Jones, and Peter Phillips. He graduated in 1962, having received the silver medal, while his classmate David Hockney won the gold one. Frank Bowling had been supposed to win the gold but due to his controversial marriage to Royal College Registrar, he was relegated to silver.
Bowling visited New York for the first time in 1961 and had been greatly influenced by the artworks of abstract expressionist and New York School painters. Bowling's first solo exhibition, entitled "Image in Revolt," was held in London at the Grabowski Galleries in 1962, and other exhibitions followed.
Despite several early successes, the artist was excluded from The New Generation: 1964, a major exhibition held at London’s Whitechapel Gallery that featured many of his fellow graduates from the Royal College of Art. When he asked about the reasons for his omission, he was told that the country was "not yet ready for a gifted artist of colour." This fact and the growing frustration made Bowling leave London for New York in 1966.
In the mid-1960s, while pop art was on the rise in Britain, Franck Bowling started his work on abstract paintings. He developed a series of artworks based on the Fibonacci sequence and Jay Hambridge’s related theory of dynamic symmetry. These works longed to "decolonize space in order to construct new commentaries around the narratives in the tradition of Western painting."
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bowling began to work on his renowned "maps" paintings, large-scale canvases onto which he painted the outlines of continents and countries, often stencilling images with personal significance onto the map. These paintings formed the basis of his unprecedented exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1971 and were eulogized by prominent critics like Clement Greenberg, who quickly became a supporter of Frank Bowling’s work. Encouraged by Greenberg, he found freedom in abstract art, alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman.
The artist has continued to push the boundaries of painting throughout his long career. In the mid-1970s, he radically lessened the size of his canvases and began producing smaller, more spontaneous artworks.
In addition to being a successful artist, Bowling has been known to be a theorist and teacher of art. Bowling was a tutor at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (now Camberwell College of Arts) between 1963 and 1983; lecturer at the University of Reading from 1964 till 1966; instructor at the Columbia University during 1968-1969; assistant professor at the Douglass Residential College in 1970-1971; artist in residence at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1974 to 1975.
Between 1975 and 1976 Frank Bowling held the post of lecturer at the School of Visual Arts, New York. During the period of 1975-1986, he served as a tutor at the Byam Shaw School of Art (now part of Central Saint Martins). Bowling was appointed artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, in 1984.
Bowling also worked as a contributing editor of Arts Magazine during 1969-1972, and he has written several essays on formalism, modernism, and the relationship between lived categories of identity and an artist’s individual vision and right to expression.
During the 1980s his paintings became more sculptural as the artist added painted Styrofoam to their surfaces. Recently Frank Bowling has returned to acrylic as a primary medium, using it to create bold, dynamic, layered, larger-scale artworks.
Frank Bowling continues to live and work in New York, where he maintains studios, and London and exhibit globally.
Mirror
Who's Afraid of Barney Newman
Head
Late Blue
Rush Green
Spreadout Ron Kitaj
Oddysseus's Footfalls
Blue Trane
Carriage
Sacha Jason Guyana Dreams
Greenacross I
37528
Old Altar Piece
Pondlife
Fishes
Rockintored
Lemongrass Blackpepper Bush
Fair Maid
Cavedwellers
Andrew brought greetings from Allen Jones
Horsing Around
Cyclist
Foaming
Untitled
Door to the Ocean 11
Storm Window III
Comes the Night
Sunrisedancing
Potarovines
Gemini
High Key Flow II
Untitled
Bottles
Bird
Quotations:
"The practice of painting within the boundaries of Formalism ... provides a setting in which I am able to test and ultimately prove my own freedom."
"The possibilities of paint are never-ending."
"I'm at my happiest in my studio. There is paint all over it - that’s the nature of my work. The canvas is tacked to the wall and then I throw paint on in various ways - pouring, splashing, dripping, spilling."
"My art is very physical. I work on the wall and floor, so I’m standing up, stooping and bending, and because the paint is moving all the time - sometimes too fast - I have to move quickly. "
"When I’m in my studio ... I am completely absorbed."
"I have a deep sympathy for younger artists. I really think it’s a tough game, career-wise."
Bowling was elected a member of England's Royal Academy of Arts on May 26, 2005. He was among a dozen other artists who were proposed to fill one of two vacancies in the 80-member academy. He has become the first Black artist to be elected a Royal Academician in the history of the institution.
Frank Bowling got married to Royal College Registrar Paddy Kitchen in 1960. Their marriage produced one son, Dan, a future drummer and punk novelist. The couple divorced in the late 1960s.