Frank Bowling

Frank Bowling OBE RA (actually Richard Sheridan Franklin Bowling ; born February 29, 1936 in Bartica , Guyana ) is a British painter of Abstract Expressionism and color field painting . He is considered one of the most important artists of the British school of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Life

Bowling was born in Guyana to a police paymaster and a seamstress. In 1950 he left South America for England.

After serving in the Royal Air Force , bowling began studying art, despite previous ambitions to become a poet and writer. He first studied at the Chelsea School of Art . In 1959 he received a scholarship to London's Royal College of Art , where artists such as David Hockney , Derek Boshier , Allen Jones , RB Kitaj and Peter Phillips were his fellow students . At his graduation in 1962, bowling was awarded the silver medal for his accomplishments, while Hockney received the gold medal.

In 1960 Bowling married his college friend, later author and art critic Patricia Margaret “Paddy” Kitchen (1934–2005). The marriage ended in divorce in the late 1960s. His first solo exhibition entitled "Image in Revolt" took place in 1962 at the Grabowski Gallery in London .

In the mid-1960s, bowling moved to New York City , where he made contacts with American artists. Supported by the New York art critic Clement Greenberg (1909–1994), he found his place in abstract art, alongside Mark Rothko , Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman . In 1971 he exhibited at the Whitney Biennial . Between 1969 and 1972 Bowling was the editor of Arts Magazine . Bowling still lives in London and New York and has studios in both cities.

Bowling's paintings have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States and are included in major private collections worldwide . His work can also be found in the permanent exhibitions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.

The Munich House of Art showed an extensive retrospective of his works from July 2017 to January 2018 .

From May to August 2019 he had his own exhibition at the Tate Modern Gallery in London.

honors and awards

On May 26, 2005, Bowling was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts . He was among a dozen or so proposed artists to fill two vacant positions in the eighty-strong academy. He is the first black artist in the history of the institution, which was founded in 1768.

In 2008, Frank Bowling was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his achievements .

literature

• Mel Gooding: Frank Bowling . Thames and Hudson, London 2011, ISBN 9781905711963
• Kellie Jones and Thelma Goldin: Energy / Experimentation. Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980 . Studio Museum Harlem, New York 2006.

Web links

• Official website of Frank Bowling , (English)
• Frank Bowling at artfacts.net
• Frank Bowling on the Tate Gallery website , accessed September 2, 2012.
• Frank Bowling on the website of the Institute of International Visual Arts , accessed September 2, 2012.
• AJ Miles: Frank Bowling Contemporary Abstract Artist , accessed September 2, 2012.
• Artist Frank Bowling on how he paints . In: The Observer . September 20, 2009, accessed September 2, 2012.
• Frank Bowling on the Skoto Gallery website , accessed September 2, 2012.
• Frank Bowling on the Hales Gallery website , accessed March 3, 2015.
• Rollo Contemporary Art , accessed September 2, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Maya Jaggi: The weight of color . In: The Guardian . February 24, 2007, accessed September 2, 2012.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Spencer A. Richards: Frank Bowling biography ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , (English), accessed September 2, 2012.  
3. ↑ Ian Collins: Obituary: Paddy Kitchen . In: The Guardian . December 12, 2005, accessed September 2, 2012.
4. ^ Frank Bowling: Mappa Mundi , website of the Munich House of Art, accessed on January 19, 2019
5. ^ Tate: Frank Bowling - Exhibition at Tate Britain. Retrieved October 23, 2019 (UK English). 
6. ^ Frank Bowling RA on the Royal Academy of Arts website , accessed September 2, 2012
7. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 58729, HMSO, London, 14 June 2008, p. 9 ( PDF , English).