Frank Bowling · Recent Abstractions at Hauser & Wirth
From 10 June to 20 August 2022, Hauser & Wirth presents "Frank Bowling. Penumbral Light", an exhibition of recent paintings by the artist Frank Bowling.
Source: Hauser & Wirth · Image: Frank Bowling, "The Pearl Poet", 2020. Acrylic on canvas. 292.1 x 188 cm / 115 x 74 in © Frank Bowling. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2022. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Sacha Bowling · Frank Bowling in his London studio © Alastair Levy. Courtesy the artist Hauser & Wirth
“There was a discussion among artists of how to get the materials to deliver all the expectations and emotions and truth and clarity. And I realised – Boom! This is it. It’s about the material, not some sort of story”Frank Bowling, to The Guardian (2019)
Born in Guyana in 1934, but a resident of the United Kingdom and the United States since the age of 19, Frank Bowling is one of the great experimenters of post-War abstract art. The exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Zurich presents recent paintings, most of them created during the confinement of 2020.
In a press note, the gallery explains that “employing a plethora of vivid hues in water-based paints, from acid greens and scorched yellows to neon pinks and deep reds, works such as ‘Towards the Palace of the Peacock’ (2020) and ‘Up a Tree’ (2021) evoke the vibrancy of past series, whilst highlighting a more relaxed and fluid approach to the artist’s painterly process. Aided by chance, Bowling submerges many of his canvases in water, then layers pigmented washes and allows drips of paint to merge, swirl and run across the canvas. Bowling often intervenes in this process by using a handheld spray bottle to change the form and course of the running paint. Works such as ‘Watermelon Bight’ and ‘Oriented Light’ (both 2020) suggest the speed at which these droplets make their journey across the canvas. The themes of water, shorelines and memory are central to the works and are evoked through the dried areas of layered paint that become reminiscent of borders, as seen in ‘Penumbral Lite’ (2020), harking back to earlier series such as Bowling’s Map paintings from the 1960s.”
“Drawing on memory and imagination, the works on view are largely inspired by early experiences of the light in Guyana, as well as the light surrounding the River Thames, which the artist crosses daily while travelling to his London studio. ‘I think that living in the tropics is different from living in a more temperate light, and it’s this that I want to portray…’ states Bowling, ‘my work is all about this experience.’ By using pearlescent pigments, works such as ‘The Pearl Poet’ (2020) both masterfully emanate light and appear illuminated from within, contained through the artist’s coating of turpentine and beeswax. In works such as ‘Thunder in the Night’ (2020), Bowling continues to play with translucency through patches of gel on the surface, revealing layers of paint and glitter below. ‘The whole business of living is to reveal, and the special story about each life becomes much clearer if that person reveals themselves or is being transparent,’ says Bowling. “

Read the full article