Richard Sheridan Franklin Bowling (Frank Bowling) is born on 26 February in Bartica, Guyana (then British Guiana). He is the eldest son of four children born to Agatha Elizabeth Franklin Bowling, a dressmaker, milliner and entrepreneur, and Richard Sheridan Bowling, a member of the local police force.
Moves with family to New Amsterdam, Guyana. Bowling's mother establishes a thriving business as a dressmaker and seller of general goods. She builds a substantial property on the main street, housing Bowling's Variety Store on the ground floor and a family residence above. Bowling recalls: “I was just the little boy brushing away the mosquitoes from her legs as she sewed right through to four o'clock in the morning.”
Attends Catholic boy's school and then Berbice High School in New Amsterdam. As a teenager, converts to Catholicism and adds Patrick Michael Aloysius to his name. In 1950 works as a "huckster", a sales representative for his mother's store, travelling long journeys by bicycle along the Atlantic coast between Georgetown and the Courantyne River on the Surinam Border.
Moves to London to complete his education and arrives at the time of the celebrations surrounding Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In describing his arrival by boat, Bowling comments, "the moment I arrived in London, I knew I was home." He intends to study English and to become a writer or poet. He enlists to do National Service with the Royal Air Force.
Meets Keith Critchlow in the RAF. Critchlow takes Bowling to the National Gallery in London for the first time and introduces him to the London art scene. Bowling moves into the Critchlow family home on Redcliffe Road, off Fulham Road, London. He sits as a model for Critchlow and his father, Jerry Critchlow, a portrait painter.
Considers a career as a writer, composing poetry while working for a car valet service and various other jobs. In addition to sitting for the Critchlows, works as a life model for students at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, as well as for RCA alumni Anthony Whishaw and Keith Cunningham. Encouraged by Whishaw, decides to apply for art school.
Begins formal art education in London, first doing evening classes at Regent Street Polytechnic, then at Chelsea School of Art, and later at the City and Guilds School, London in 1959. His training is rooted in traditional techniques, with a strong emphasis on life drawing and still-life painting. Receives the encouragement and support of Carel Weight, head of painting at the Royal College of Art.
Receives scholarship to study at the Painting School at the RCA, London, where his peers include David Hockney, Derek Boshier, Barrie Bates (who would later become known as Billy Apple), R.B. Kitaj, and Patrick Caulfield. Becomes a member of the Young Commonwealth Artists’ Group (YCAG), an exhibition collective formed by students from Commonwealth countries. He joins with fellow artists including Jerry Pethick, Bates, Jonathan Kingdon and Neil Stocker, all of whom are attending London art schools at the time. Their aim is to ‘exhibit works free of ‘isms’ – artistic, social or political; and to provide a stimulating centre for people from different geographic homes and cultures’.
Marries Paddy Kitchen, who works as an assistant to RCA Principal Robin Darwin which leads to his expulsion from the RCA. In the autumn term, he transfers to the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London, focusing on a series of sheep's head paintings. While at the Slade becomes friends with Francis Bacon. He lives and works at 28 Cedars Road in Clapham until 1962.
Permitted to return to the RCA for the spring term after Paddy Kitchen leaves her role at the College to join the Chelsea School of Art. Influenced by the work of Francis Bacon, Carel Weight, and Richard Hamilton, centres on themes of human suffering and tensions of confined domestic environments as seen in Birthday, 1961, and Martyrdom of Patrice Lumumba, 1961. Travels to New York for the first time on a RCA bursary, accompanied by fellow students David Hockney, Derek Boshier and Billy Apple. Frequently visits the Museum of Modern Art, encountering the work of leading Abstract Expressionists including Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. Sells three of his paintings to Richard Bellamy, director of the Green Gallery. Meets Franz Kline. Travels to Pasadena, California, to see his sister, Maisie. Two paintings included in the Young Contemporaries at the RBA Galleries, London, a touring show highlighting up-and-coming artists. The exhibition spotlights emerging artists from the RCA — among them Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, and Peter Phillip — who would become key figures in the development of postwar British art.
Eldest son, Dan, is born to Paddy Kitchen, followed by the birth of second son, Benjamin, to the artist Claire Spencer. Resides at 47 Lupus Street in Pimlico, London, until 1964. Works out of a small studio at 3 Claverton Street until 1979 and uses a larger studio—previously occupied by American artist Leon Golub—on Lavender Walk in Battersea, until 1967. Graduates from the RCA completing a thesis on Piet Mondrian. Awarded the Silver Medal of Painting. Offered a travelling scholarship to Rome, Bowling opts instead to visit Barbados, Trinidad, and Guyana—marking his first return to the Caribbean in a decade. Three paintings included in the Young Contemporaries exhibition. Sets up a discussion group in London on colour, featuring theoretical chemist Paul Harrison, architect Jeremy Thomas, and Canadian sculptor Jerry Pethick. Meets American painter Larry Rivers, who becomes a lasting friend and mentor. First major exhibition alongside Boshier, Image in Revolt, at Grabowski Gallery, London. Birthday, 1962, is acquired from the exhibition by the Arts Council of Great Britain. A Mirror, Three Windows, a Door, 1962, is acquired by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal.
![Photograph of Frank Bowling sitting in front of his [now lost] painting, Lent, 1963. Photo: unknown photographer. Courtesy Frank Bowling Archive](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite1474/usr/images/images/filepath/190/1963-fb_2_2_12_14-50mm-transparencies-of-frank-bowling-in-front-of-his-painting-lent-b-copy.jpg)
Begins lecturing at Reading University and takes a part-time teaching role at Camberwell School of Art. Collaborates with its Textiles Department and produces a series of silkscreen images of Bowling's Variety Store, later used in works including Cover Girl, 1966, Mother's House with Beware of the Dog, 1966, and My Guyana, 1966–67. Joins the London Group under the presidency of Claude Rogers along with Michael Elliot, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff, Evert Lundquist, and in 1967 is elected Vice-President. Commissioned to produce three paintings for the 1964 Shakespeare Quatercentenary Exhibition in Stratford-upon-Avon. Peter Blake, Leonard Rosoman and Ceri Richards also commissioned. Produces three large-scale paintings, two of which are approximately 10m wide, at a spacious studio in Alexandra Palace. All three are later destroyed.
Third son, Sacha, is born to Irena Bowling (née Delderfield, married in 1969). Lives at 33 Bessborough Street, Pimlico, which Bowling uses as a studio and London base until 1981. Visits New York, staying at the Chelsea Hotel. Meets Jasper Johns and Claus Oldenburg. Back in London, begins making acrylic paintings using photographic sources and explores the theme of the dying swan. Begins major work Mirror, 1964–66.
Bowling's figurative diptych, Beggars No. 1 and 2, 1963, appears in Private View, a publication on the London art scene by Bryan Robertson and John Russell, with photography by Lord Snowdon. During an extended visit to New York, Bowling is introduced to art dealer Terry Dintenfass by artist Elizabeth Frink. His work catches the attention of artist Larry Rivers and the poet Frank O'Hara, who encourage Bowling to leave London for New York.
Completes Mirror, 1964–66, a landmark painting that signals Bowling's shift toward abstraction. It features a spiral staircase that connects the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with the painting department at the Royal College of Art. Takes leave from teaching at Reading University and relocates to New York, initially residing at the Hotel Chelsea before moving into a studio on Beekman Street. Holds his first solo exhibition in New York at Terry Dintenfass Gallery, where he shows the Beggar series. His painting Big Bird (1964) earns him the Grand Prize for Painting at the inaugural World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. Later that year, he returns to London in December, where his marriage to Paddy Kitchen comes to an end.
Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, enabling him to rent a loft studio at 535 Broadway in SoHo, New York, where he lives and works primarily until 1975. The size of the loft and competitive milieu of late 1960s SoHo fires Bowling's ambition and the creation of works stretching to more than 7m across. Wins painting prize at the Edinburgh Open 100 in Scotland for My Guyana, 1966–67. Following advice from Larry Rivers, begins experimenting with thin acrylic washes, stencils, and epidiascope projections — methods that would play a crucial role in the development of his influential map paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Begins teaching at Columbia University, New York, a position held until 1969. Serves as artist-in-residence in the Department of Art and Architecture at Princeton University, invited by then-professor Sam Hunter. Travels to New Amsterdam, Guyana, with photographer Tina Tranter to shoot footage for a planned BBC Monitor programme, ultimately unrealised.
Curates 5+1, at the invitation of Lawrence Alloway and Sam Hunter, at the Art Gallery, State University of New York, Stony Brook. The exhibition features five prominent Black American abstract artists — Melvin Edwards, Al Loving, Jack Whitten, Daniel LaRue Johnson, and William T. Williams — alongside Bowling himself. Becomes Assistant Professor at Douglass University, New Jersey, from 1969–70. Assists Larry Rivers as curator for the controversial exhibition Some American History at Rice University, Houston. Participates for the first time in the Whitney Annual, entitled Contemporary American Painting. Becomes contributing editor for Arts Magazine, New York, until 1972, during a period of intense debate around “Black Art” in New York, surrounding exhibitions such as Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America 1900–1968, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Serves as Assistant Professor at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, from 1970–71. Artist Dan Johnson introduces Bowling to Clement Greenberg at a party given by artist Peter Reginato. Participates in the Whitney Annual at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The Menil Foundation commissions a new painting for its collection, Middle Passage, 1970. The Whitney acquires a large map painting titled Dan Johnson’s Surprise, 1969.
First solo museum exhibition is held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, with six large-scale map paintings that signal Bowling's shift to abstraction and Colour Field painting. The exhibition is well received, earning positive reviews in Arts Magazine and ARTnews. Also participates in two Whitney group exhibitions: Contemporary Black Artists in America and the Whitney Annual. Middle Passage, 1970, is featured in Some American History, an exhibition addressing slavery curated by Larry Rivers, at the Institute for the Arts, Rice University in Houston. Influential art critic Clement Greenberg visits Bowling's SoHo studio at 535 Broadway for the first time, marking the start of a lasting intellectual exchange between the two.
Visits Guyana to see the first iteration of CARIFESTA, an important multidisciplinary Caribbean festival of the arts. Greenberg introduces Bowling to New York dealer Noah Goldowsky. Brings his role as contributing editor to Arts Magazine to an end and begins writing for other art publications, including Cover and Fuse.
Solo exhibition of large-scale paintings at the Center for Inter-American Relations, organised by John Tancock. Receives a second Guggenheim Fellowship.
Creates a tilting platform that acts as a device for pouring paint across the canvas, leading to his Poured Paintings. His marriage to Irena Bowling comes to an end.
The celebrated African American novelist and editor Toni Morrison and Bowling become close friends. Morrison is photographed in her Random House office in NYC with a large map painting by Bowling on the wall behind her. Solo exhibition at Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York. Whitney Museum of American Art acquires Advice and Concent, 1972–73.
Continues to experiment with poured paint to produce very distinctive works such as Tony's Anvil (named for the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro). Joins Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, where he exhibits regularly until 1989. Lectures at the School of Visual Arts, New York, until 1976. Spends more time in London to be closer to his teenage sons. Works from a studio above St Anselm's Church Hall in Kennington. Teaches at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and Byam Shaw School of Art until 1982.
Starts to work from a modest studio space at 19 Maclise House on Marsham Street in Pimlico, located behind Tate Britain, where he works until 1984. Takes part in numerous group exhibitions across the UK and the USA, including The British Art Show at the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield (which toured to Newcastle and Bristol), and Another Generation at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.
Adopts a more fluid and experimental approach to abstract painting with a series of large works including Moby Dick, Vitacress and Ah Susan Woosh, all of which were made in the restricted space of his Maclise House studio. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acquires Barticaflats Even Time, 1980.
Begins to incorporate sculptural materials into his paintings such as acrylic foam and cardboard, resulting in richly textured surfaces. Introduces a new compositional technique he calls 'marouflage', a term he came across via Clement Greenberg, in which strips of painted canvas are affixed to three or more edges of the central panel. This approach ensures the edges of the main canvas remain visible when stretched and serves as an integral framing device within the painting itself.
Valentin Tatransky, writing for the September issue of Arts Magazine, draws comparisons between Bowling and the leading American abstract painters. A conversation between Bowling, Paul Harrison and Jeremy Thomas is published in the December issue of Artscribe International. Moves to a residence in Pimlico, a 5‑minute walk from Maclise House and Tate Britain, where he still lives today.
Spends nine weeks in a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in rural Maine, accompanied by Rachel Scott and his sons Ben and Sacha. Inspired by the verdant landscape, he uses the opportunity of having a studio in the woods to experiment with dense, thickly layered canvases in green and ochre. Establishes a studio at Peacock Yard, in a community of other artists and makers in Kennington, South London — an area he continues to work in to this day.
Significant solo exhibition of recent large-scale textured grid paintings at the Serpentine Gallery, London, running concurrently with exhibitions of works by John Gibbons and Clyde Hopkins. Ronald Alley describes the paintings in the exhibition catalogue: “his recent works tend to be heavily, richly encrusted with paint and often incorporate linear accents formed by strips of plastic form.” Interest in education continues and he gives a talk to students at the Serpentine Gallery. Rents a studio on Cable Street, London, with a small view of the Thames, where he creates many large works including the Great Thames series of 1989.
Solo shows included 1987 The Whitechapel Open and numerous exhibitions across the USA: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; Americas Society / Center for Inter-American Relations, New York; El Paso Museum of Art; Boston University Art Gallery; University Gallery, University of Florida; Variations in Matter Painting, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York; Kingsborough Community College Gallery, City University of New York, Brooklyn. Tate Gallery, London, acquires Spreadout Ron Kitaj, 1984–86 — the first painting in its collection by a Black British artist.
A touring show of the sculptural works starts at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, and tours on to the Municipal Art Gallery, Limerick; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; University of Liverpool, Liverpool; and Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Bowling also shows in London at the Whitechapel Open and the Royal Academy. Bowling's mother, Agatha, dies in Guyana aged 84.
Following his mother's death, Bowling visits Guyana for the first time in many years, accompanied by his youngest son, Sacha, and exhibits alongside Guyanese artist Denis de Caires at the Umana Yana Gallery in Georgetown. The exhibition is organised with the British Council and the Department of Culture in Guyana. For the first time, in conversation with his son Sacha, Bowling recognises a connection between the “heat haze” of Guyana and the atmospheric qualities present in his own paintings, such as SachaJasonGuyanaDreams, 1989. Included in the group exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain, Hayward Gallery, London.
First grandson, Samson Sahmland-Bowling, is born. Following a lengthy legal dispute over the lease of Bowling's SoHo studio, which had hindered his ability to maintain a consistent practice in New York since 1975, he secures a loft studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Begins dividing time equally between New York and London, spending the spring and autumn in Brooklyn, and establishes a transatlantic rhythm. Arts Council of Great Britain acquires Great Thames IV, 1989.
First solo exhibition in a public gallery in New York for several years, at Wilmer Jennings Gallery, Kenkeleba House, a non-profit space founded in 1974 by artists to support African American culture. Exhibits two paintings in The Search for Freedom – African American Abstract Painting 1945–1975, also held at Kenkeleba Gallery. The exhibition later tours to the Cleveland Institute of Art and the State University of New York. Begins experimenting with smaller formats and the technique of layering multiple canvases. Girls in the City, 1991, is comprised of seven individually marouflaged and stretched paintings.
In the early 1990s, Bowling's practice takes something of a turn away from the heavy palette and surfaces, with paintings that are lighter, more colourful, and freer. Represented in A/Cross Currents: Synthesis in African American Abstract Painting at the Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal, which later tours to Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Receives his first Pollock-Krasner Award.
Meets Spencer Richards in New York — the beginning of an important friendship and professional relationship. Interviewed by Okwui Enwezor and Olu Oguibe for Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. The 1990s see Bowling turning to smaller paintings, often started in London and completed in New York, or vice versa.
Frank Bowling: Bowling on Through the Century, a British touring exhibition featuring works from the 1980s and 1990s, is organised by Eddie Chambers. The show travels to Leicester City Gallery; Gallery II at the University of Bradford; De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea; South Hill Park, Bracknell; Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham; and the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.
Bowling on Through the Century continues, and his work is also included in group shows such as Caribbean Visions at the Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont; the Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Absolut Bowling, 1997, is acquired by the Absolut Art Collection, Spritmuseum, Stockholm.
Receives second Pollock–Krasner Award. Group shows open at the New Jersey State Museum, OK Harris Gallery and a Piri Halasz curated exhibition A Year in the Life of Present Modernism at Tribes Gallery, New York. Solo shows at G.R. N’Namdi Gallery in Detroit and Rush Arts Gallery in New York. In May, Michael Amy reviews two recent solo exhibitions at Christiane Nienaber Gallery and The Skylight Gallery in New York in Art in America.
![Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? [Dawn], 1999, Acrylic and acrylic gel on canvas with marouflage, 121.3 x 148.6 cm](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite1474/usr/library/images/timeline/1999-who-s-afraid-of-red-yellow-and-blue-dawn-.jpg)
Group shows included Tate Unseen: Living Artists from the Tate Storeroom, Gallery, Lincoln, UK; Six American Masters: Bowling, Carter, Clark, Hutson, Loving, Pindell, Sugar Hill Art Center, New York; Forms of Abstraction III, George N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, Michigan; No Greater Love, Abstraction, Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York.
Retrospective exhibition, Bending the Grid: Black Identity and Resistance in the Art of Frank Bowling, at Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, New Jersey, curated by Dorothy Désir and Spencer Richards. A photo-etching Mother Approaching Sixty, 2003 is produced to benefit Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art (acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.) A selection of Map Paintings exhibited at the 50th Venice Biennale in a group exhibition, organised in collaboration with Africa in Venice Foundation, titled Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes curated by Gilane Tawadros for the Institute of International Visual Arts, London.
Exhibits Who’s Afraid of Barney Newman, 1968, at Tate Britian in Art and the 60s: This was Tomorrow, a group show curated by Lynne Cooke. The exhibition focuses on new forms of art that emerged in Britain from 1956 to 1968 and breaks new ground for Tate Britain by mixing fine art, architecture and photography. The painting is later acquired by Tate in 2006. Other solo exhibitions include Frank Bowling: 4 Decades with Color at The Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; a survey exhibition at Broadbent Gallery, London; as well as gallery exhibitions in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Delivers Uhuru lecture on 7th November at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Jim Hunter writes a celebratory text for Frank Bowling at Eighty in catalogue essay for his exhibition of new paintings at Spanierman Modern, New York.
Becomes the first Black artist to be elected Royal Academician to the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Continues to work in monochrome. Art historian and curator, Indie Choudhury, describes Icarus, 2005, as ‘the most poignant Bowling’s white series.’ It has, she says, ‘a shimmering, jewel-like intensity [and] captures a mode of lyrical abstraction that is Bowling’s formulation of form and expression.’
Begins exhibiting annually with Rollo Contemporary Art, London, continuing until 2011. Participates in group exhibition Energy / Experimentation: Black Artists 1964–1980 at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Made an Honorary Fellow at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth (now Arts University Bournemouth). Tate Gallery, London, acquires two paintings— SachaJasonGuyanaDreams, 1989, and Who’s Afraid of Barney Newman, 1968, a map painting featuring the stenciled images of South America, Guyana and Bowling’s Variety Store, in red, yellow and green and referencing Abstract Expressionist, Barnett Newman.
After a period of serious ill-health and with decreasing mobility, Bowling increasingly invites friends and family to assist in the studio. During this period, he paints primarily on a long, narrow table—its rectangular shape becoming a central compositional element leading to the Zippers, a series of works that comprised almost the entirety of his artistic output in 2009. Exhibits at The Mark of The Hand at Spanierman Modern in New York.
First major monograph written by Mel Gooding is published by the Royal Academy of Arts. Four solo exhibitions, one of which is Journeyings: Recent Works on Paper by Frank Bowling RA at the Royal Academy, London. Joins Hales Gallery, London, where he holds regular exhibitions until 2019. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acquires Night Journey, 1969–70.
A year-long (April 2012- March 2013) focused display at Tate Britain, London titled Drop, Roll, Slide, Drip…Frank Bowling’s Poured Paintings 1973-1978, curated by Courtney J. Martin who describes these as ‘perhaps his most innovative series of works showing his skill for experimentation and painterly nuance.’ A review in The Independent by Holly Williams describes Bowling’s paintings as ‘gorgeous, colourful, flowing things created in the 1970s by pouring paint on canvasses in multiple layers, letting it slide and stream, pool and puddle.’
Solo exhibition of six large works, Frank Bowling: Map Paintings, is held at the Dallas Museum of Art, curated by Gavin Delahunty. Coincidentally, nearby the Nasher Sculpture Center exhibits concurrently a Melvin Edwards retrospective. A review of both shows by Mark Godfrey is published in the May issue of Artforum. Participates in Tate Britain’s major conference where scholars, curators and artists from around Britain and the world consider art created under the British Empire, its aftermath, and its future in museum and gallery displays. The conference marks the opening of the Tate Britain exhibition, Artist and Empire, introduced by Nicholas Serota.
Major touring solo exhibition Frank Bowling: Mappa Mundi, covering the period 1967 to 1989, opens at Haus der Kunst, Munich, curated by Okwui Enwezor with Anna Schneider. In the catalogue, Kobena Mercer states, ‘Bowling prepared the way for the post-colonial turn that, by decentering modernism, changed the rules of the game that gave rise to the emergence of global contemporary art.’ Two major Map Paintings included in group exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, at Tate Modern, London, curated by Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley. Jonathan Jones, in a review for The Guardian, describes Bowling as a ‘mighty exponent’ and goes on to write ‘Bowling’s vast, addictive 1971 canvas Texas Louise is a romantic blaze of desert light almost seven metres wide in which a map of the Americas glows like a dying vision of an anguished history. It is an unforgettable painting.’
Mappa Mundi tours to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah. Solo exhibition with Alexander Gray Associates, New York, features recent paintings. Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power tours to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, and Brooklyn Museum, New York. Wins Critics Circle Visual Arts and Architecture Award. Bowling visits New York for last time, works on Mummybelli, 2019. Moderna Museet in Stockholm acquires Listening to Beethoven, 2016, the first placement in a museum in northern Europe.
Major retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain curated by Elena Crippa. Critic Jonathon Jones wrote in The Guardian: ‘he is up there with Turner, Rothko and Pollock. This magnificent show, which swings from joyous foam-filled works to serious meditations about slavery, is long overdue.’ Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power tours to The Broad, Los Angeles, and his work is in group shows at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Studio Museum Harlem and across the USA from San Francisco, Seattle, Charleston and Kalamazoo. Named ‘Artist of the Year’ by Apollo Magazine. Display of Cathedral paintings at Art Basel. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, acquires Elder Sun Benjamin, 2018.
The year begins with a period of serious ill health just before the covid lockdown. Bowling declares that painting is essential work and returns to the studio in the spring. Begins working with Hauser & Wirth. Receives an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London. Awarded Knighthood for services to the arts. Named ‘Oldie Artist of the Year’ by The Oldie Magazine.
Inaugural exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth in London and New York, spanning over 50 years from 1967 to the present day. Solo exhibition, Land of Many Waters, Arnolfini, Bristol praised by Nicola Gray in Third Text for its ‘uniqueness, energy and vibrancy... Rothko on Acid.’ Group exhibitions include Life Between Islands at Tate Britain, exploring the relationship between the Caribbean and Britain from the 1950s to the present and Fragments of Epic Memory at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Exhibits the monumental Samson’s Circle and Lila’s Dress, 2019 at Unlimited, Art Basel. Tate Gallery, London, acquires Rachel IV, 1989.
Receives Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany and the museum also acquires Flogging the Dead Donkey, 2020. First gallery exhibition of works on paper at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles. Bowling’s first exhibition in Switzerland – Penumbral Light at Hauser and Wirth, Zürich – was said by one reviewer to ‘highlight artist’s unparalleled originality, a testament to Bowling’s pioneering spirit in revealing the intrinsic qualities of light through paint.’ Returns again to the use of stencils including maps of Australia, Barbados and South America. Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires Raining Down South, 1968, and The Metropolitan Museum of New York acquires Looking West Again, 2020.
Solo museum exhibitions Frank Bowling: The New York Years 1966–1975 at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Frank Bowling’s Americas at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Commences a series of monumental, collaged canvases including Skid, 2023 which is nearly four and a half meters tall. In collaboration with Circa, Bowling presented his first digital artwork crossfading Texas Louise, 1971 and Australia to Africa, 1969-70. The digital canvas exhibited in the lights at Picadilly Circus, celebrates the 70-year anniversary of the artist's arrival in London in May 1953. Also with Circa, produces a print edition – Understanding Frank – to fund art materials in primary schools.
Celebrating Bowling’s 90th birthday, Hauser and Wirth display Hello Rosa New York, 1974 alongside the equally monumental work, created for the occasion, Thanks to Water, 2025. Group exhibitions include Ten Thousand Suns at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Biennale of Sydney) and Entangled Pasts at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires Julia, 1975.
First solo exhibition in France at Hauser & Wirth Paris which includes four monumental, collaged canvases, all more than four meters tall, made for the space. Fondation Carmignac acquires Hello Rosa New York, 1973, which is included in Vertigo, their summer exhibition on the island of Porquerolles. Group exhibitions include Fondation Louis Vuitton; The Modern, Fort Worth Texas; Chatworth House, Derbyshire; Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon. First exhibition in Brazil with major solo presentation at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo: Not All Travellers Walk Roads / Of Humanity as Practice, led by chief curator Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. Bowling declares that his current paintings are ‘part of a journey that’s taking me back to South America.’