Journeyings: Recent Works on Paper by Frank Bowling RA 

Frank Bowling RA, 'Octoberbloom II', 2009

This exhibition offers an opportunity to explore recent works on paper by the painter Frank Bowling RA (b. 1936).

Bowling’s art reflects his travels, actual and aesthetic, between his birthplace of British Guiana (now Guyana) and his homes and studios in London and New York; between the tradition of English landscape painting and the legacy of American Abstract Expressionism.

Like the much larger paintings on canvas for which Bowling is renowned, these works in acrylic paint and gel on heavy paper have a powerful physical presence created by their vibrant colours and tactile surfaces. Originating in Bowling’s need to find a new way to paint while recovering from illness, their gestural quality seems magnified by their smaller scale. The works are abstract, yet the viewer is led to figurative or representational associations by the artist’s obvious preoccupation with space and light and the allusive titles that he gives them.

Excerpts from a forthcoming documentary film on Frank Bowling’s life and work by Rose Jones, currently in production, will also be on view.