If you can’t draw, trace
ARTS MAGAZINE
February 1971
[PICTURE]
Larry Rivers, Me and My Shadow 1 [1970], 79″ x 71 1/2″ x 24 1/2″, canvas, photomontage, plastic and wood construction.
Frank Bowling: Larry, before your things went up to the gallery, they were all around the studio, I among others, was in and out. Recently it occurred to me that perhaps your work [...]
Another Map Problem
Written by Frank Bowling
The aim of criticism, it has always seemed to me, is to unearth through understanding the most direct possible interpretation of the achievements of painters, as with the specialists in any field. This does not mean that the critic should tell the painter how to be a good painter. It is even a liberty to assert, as it has been reported one well-known critic has, in response to a painter’s accusation of bullying, ” I don’t tell you how to paint!
Silence: People Die Crying - When They Should Love.
Written by Frank Bowling
The past season has seen a spate of correspondence surrounding the nature of Black Art. The definition seems to have gained little clarity but the issues still rage: thus, the spoken utterances of artists [painters and sculptors] perpetually left a certain non-plussing, discouraging confusion often full of ” … I was aiming at” ” I could have done” etc.
The Rupture - Ancestor Worship, Revival, Confusion, or Disguise
Written by Frank Bowling
When I complained of negative comparisons in art criticism and comments in diverse publications which at the time seemed disposed to ridiculing black people’s endeavor in the areas of painting, graphics and sculpture, I rather adopted the attitude that among institutions, museums were just as guilty of that hidden but quite positive decline of standards which must have started with the most serious attitudes and highest motives.
Joe Overstreet
Written by Frank Bowling
Joe Overstreet’s first, comprehensive one man show is this season at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It is the most challenging pictorial confrontation in my recent experience. This show is a triumph!
Black Art 111
Written by Frank Bowling
Current art criticism is developing an attitude which threatens to consign the idea and fact of Black Art to the periphery of artistic events. This establishment criticism hides behind useful political terms “revolution,” “pragmatism,” “Marxism,” and sociology.
X to the Fourth Power
Written by Frank Bowling
Four currents in contemporary art are dealt with here - to varying degrees of success. The mood is one of up-to-the-minute immediacy, the scale is monumental and the impact varies from work to work.
A Shift in Perspective
While participating on two separate panel discussions, it struck me that a recurrent theme was the relative absence of a style, mode, or fashion. An absence of tyranny. You know, like Abstract Expressionist, or Pop; that kind of thing. One was either doing it like all the other fellow travellers, or was ostracized.
Discussion on Black Art - 11.
Written by Frank Bowling
ARTS MAGAZINE
May 1969
The question remains: why have black artists, given their historical role in art, contributed so little to the mainstream of contemporary styles or better still, why have they contributed so little to the great body of modern or modernist works? Left at sea, as I indicated in my last effort, I have been [...]
Critique: Discussion on Black Art
Written by Frank Bowling
The art scene is full of things that everyone knows about; grapevine truths that people carry around [rather in the manner of beasts of burden] like guilty secrets. “Guilty” because, although everyone is free to air these general truths, they are only tempted to do so under duress or in instances of extreme passion – offensively or defensively.