Frank Bowling: London / New York at Hauser & Wirth Savile Row, 2021

Ina

Jul 14, 2021

3 min read

Updated: Oct 6

Frank Bowling: London / New York ran at Hauser & Wirth on Savile Row from 21 May to 31 July 2021. It was the artist's first show with the gallery, and a matching one opened in New York on 22nd Street. This page is a record of the London show.

Gallery view of large abstract canvases in green, red and orange on white walls, with two visitors standing in the far room

Frank Bowling: London / New York – What Was the Show?

The two shows ran side by side. New York opened on 5 May and closed on 30 July, and London followed on 21 May. Between them they covered more than 50 years of work, from 1967 to the present.

Hauser & Wirth published a 116-page catalogue with an essay by Mark Godfrey. The London rooms were free, with timed booking and opening hours of Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm.

Who Is Frank Bowling?

Bowling was born on 26 February 1934 in Bartica, Guyana, then British Guiana. He arrived in London in 1953, aged 19, and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1959.

His fellow students included David Hockney, Derek Boshier, R. B. Kitaj and Patrick Caulfield. He took his first London studio in Pimlico in 1962.

Detail of thick yellow paint with green and brown edges and a pitted surface, from Fishes Wishes and Star Apple Blue (1987)

Why Did He Work in Two Cities?

Bowling first visited New York in 1961, on a Royal College of Art bursary, and moved there in 1966. He stayed at the Hotel Chelsea at first, then took a studio on Beekman Street, and from 1967 to 1975 worked at 535 Broadway in SoHo.

The critic Clement Greenberg visited that SoHo studio in 1971, the start of a long exchange between the two men. Bowling kept a London base in Pimlico as well, and the show's title refers to that split.

Gallery view with a rust-orange textured canvas on the left wall and a blue grid-patterned painting on the far wall, over a polished concrete floor

How Does He Make a Painting?

Bowling pours and spills acrylic, then builds the surface up with acrylic gel. Some canvases carry found objects pressed into the paint, and some are cut up and joined with other pieces of canvas.

Swimmers, from 2020, is acrylic, acrylic gel and found objects on collaged canvas. Its bands of pale yellow, pink and red run across the whole width.

A wide canvas of horizontal bands in pale yellow, pink and red with a darker red strip across the middle, from Swimmers (2020)

May Shimmer, from 2018, uses the same materials on marouflaged canvas. The marks sit in several layers.

A tall narrow canvas of pink, brown and green paint with a heavily marked surface, from May Shimmer (2018)

Jetty, from 1983, is acrylic, acrylic gel and polyurethane foam on canvas. The foam gives the paint real height.

A canvas in purple and brown with lines of yellow and a dark outline, from Jetty (1983)

Close up, the surface of Jetty becomes a mix of lilac and yellow paint that stands off the canvas.

Close detail of thick yellow and lilac paint with ridges and pooled colour, from Jetty (1983)

What Is Jamsahibwall?

Jamsahibwall, from 1990, is made of seven panels of acrylic and acrylic gel on marouflaged canvas. Marouflage means the canvas is glued down onto a backing. Here the painted edges carry on into the frame of the work.

A large work in several blue panels edged in orange and red, hung on a white gallery wall, Jamsahibwall (1990)

A detail shows blue and white paint with bits of pale material set into it.

Close detail of blue, white and orange paint with raised pale flecks, from Jamsahibwall (1990)

Which Other Paintings Stood Out?

Fishes Wishes and Star Apple Blue, from 1987, hung on the long wall. Its rust and orange ground carries one patch of yellow low on the right.

A rust-orange canvas with a yellow patch at lower right, from Fishes Wishes and Star Apple Blue (1987)

Wobbly V with Bunches, from 2020, is green with red and pink marks.

A green canvas covered with textured red and pink marks, from Wobbly V with Bunches (2020)

Closer in, a circle is drawn over the red and pink.

Close detail of a drawn circle over red, pink and pale paint, from Wobbly V with Bunches (2020)

The rust canvas shows again from across the gallery, with a red sign on the far wall.

View along a gallery with a rust-orange painting on the left wall and a small red sign on the far wall

Where Is Hauser & Wirth on Savile Row?

The gallery is at 23 Savile Row, a short walk from the shops in Bond Street, London and from Burlington Arcade. The Royal Academy is a few minutes away, and I covered a big show there in Francis Bacon: Man and Beast.

Another gallery that opened in London in the same part of town is on my page about Mark Rothko at Pace Gallery. A later Bowling show, Frank at 90, ran from February to 16 March 2024.

Frank Bowling: London / New York – Practical Notes

📍 Where: Hauser & Wirth London, 23 Savile Row, London W1S 2ET.

📅 Open days: 21 May to 31 July 2021. The New York show ran from 5 May to 30 July.

⏰ Opening: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm.

🎫 Admission: Free, with timed booking.

🚇 Getting there: Green Park and Piccadilly Circus are the closest stations.

🗺️ Nearby: Burlington Arcade, the Royal Academy and New Bond Street.

_______________________

Did you enjoy this article? If you'd like to contribute to the running costs of WithinLondon, click the button below:

All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.