Amidst the Frieze
furore of last week that reverberated across all corners of the capital, the
stylish tranquillity of The Keeper’s House at the Royal Academy played host to
an intimate evening in conversation with the artist and Royal Academician,
Frank Bowling, OBE. Ahead of the abstract painter’s major exhibition opening
this week at the Spritmuseum, Stockholm – home of the Absolut Art Collection -
guests had the pleasure of being introduced to the exhibition’s curator Mia
Sundberg, art historian Courtney J. Martin as well as critic and long-term friend
of Bowling, Mel Gooding.
Traingone will
showcase works produced in the artist’s New York and London studios between
1979 and 1996. The exhibition marks a resurgence of global attention that
Bowling has received after his solo exhibition, Focus Display at Tate Britain
in 2012.
FrankBowling in convo @royalacademy Keeper's House ahead of major exhib opening nxt wk @Spritmuseum #Stockholm. #art pic.twitter.com/DrfgHtNerJ
— Jonathan Velardi (@JMVELARDI) October 13, 2014
The evening
covered the artist’s colourful career that is famously reflected in his
large-scale canvases. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1962,
Bowling left London for New York with a “longing to be in literary things” and
found his feet within the contemporary literary scene of poets and writers resisidng in the metropolis. It
was there Bowling first met fellow Brit Gooding who developed an interest in the
artist’s work and his inspiration, which was rooted in the works of great English
painters such as Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. Gooding
described Bowling at the time of possessing, “an inner knowledge of the works
of American artists as a British outsider” while armed with classical foundations.
This quality allowed Bowling a freedom to experiment on the canvas unseen
before on the New York art scene that saw various influences of geometry and
plastic materials manipulated to create sculptural relief on the surface.
Charismatically, Bowling describes his practice as being “intent on making competitive imagery”,
which has seen his poetically titled works go on display in a
number of prominent international exhibitions and collections throughout his career.
Detail - Traingone (Mahaicony Abary), 1996
Lauded by Gooding as a “master of Colour Field painting’, Bowling’s
kelaidescopic-scapes attract the viewer with colour and entice in contextual
dynamism – a formula that has proved Bowling’s foresight and endurance in
today’s competitive painting market.
The 78 year old artist continues to work between
London and New York and is represented by Hales Gallery, London.
Traingone by
Frank Bowling, OBE RA opens at the Spritmusem in
Stockholm, Sweden on 23rd October 2014 and runs to 6th April 2015.
