Collections Online
Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
Advanced Search
Caesar's Plume
BOWLING, Frank (Frank Bowling moved to England in 1953 and there completed his high school education. After completing National Service in the Royal Air Force force, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London in 1959 and graduated in 1962. He was awarded the Silver Medal in Painting and a traveling scholarship to South America and the Caribbean. Beginning as a figurative painter, he moved into abstraction in the 1960s after visiting New York and encountering American Abstract Expressionism. He considers himself a British artist and when the Tate Gallery bought a work by him in 1987 it was the first work by a living black British artist that they had acquired. He is also the first black artist to be elected a Royal Academician.)
Frank Bowling's 'poured' paintings explore the balance between chance and intention in painting. Contrasting colours are poured at height onto canvas. Bowling then intervenes in this chance arrangement - the canvas is held aloft, laid down, turned and twisted.
Bowling was the first black artist to be elected to the Royal Academy, in 2005.
Image: © Frank Bowling. All Rights Reserved. DACS 2025/Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales
Collection Area
Art
Item Number
NMW A 29401
Creation/Production
BOWLING, Frank
Acquisition
Purchase - ass. of DWT, 11/5/2009
Measurements
Height
(cm): 167
Width
(cm): 84
Techniques
Acrylic on canvas
Techniques (fine art)
Art dept - fine
Fine Art - painting
Material
Acrylic
Location
In store
Comments are currently unavailable. We apologise for the inconvenience.