An illuminating exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge traces the evolution of British-Guyanese artist Frank Bowling, from his early attempts at socially conscious painting to his eventual embrace of abstraction. The show highlights the artist’s struggle to find his own voice within the rigid categories imposed on painters in the early 1960s.
Bowling’s early works, such as 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1961) and Beggar No 5 (1962-63), show an artist trying to conform to expectations—whether as a postwar existentialist or a Black artist addressing postcolonial experiences. However, these paintings are described as not entirely successful, with Beggar No 5 heavily indebted to Francis Bacon.
A turning point comes with Swan (1964), a painting of a flailing white form caught in an iridescent grid. Inspired by a swan trapped in an oil slick on the Thames, the work can be read both as pure abstraction and as a symbolic narrative, suggesting Bowling had reached an impasse that demanded change.
In 1966, Bowling left London for New York, where he reinvented himself under the influence of critic Clement Greenberg, embracing art as a purely aesthetic realm. This liberation is evident in Lenoraseas (1976), a vertical stripe of variegated colours created by pouring paint down a canvas, showcasing Bowling’s gifts as a colourist while retaining a rich physical surface.
