Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime – From Social Conscience to Abstract Freedom

This illuminating exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, traces the British-Guyanese artist Frank Bowling’s journey, from his initial exploration of painting with a social conscience to his eventual escape from London to New York and his embrace of abstraction.

In 1961, when Bowling was creating the earliest pieces featured in this insightful show, painters were often confined by strict categorizations. Artists were expected to be either political, aiming to use art for societal improvement, or formalist, asserting that art should be judged on its inherent qualities. They were also typically aligned with either European or American artistic traditions. Furthermore, a Black artist was often expected to represent their community, whereas an "artist" (a term generally reserved for white, ideally male, creators) had the liberty to address any subject they chose. It quickly becomes apparent that young Frank Bowling found these rigid options deeply unsatisfactory.

His early works suggest an attempt, at least initially, to conform. For example, "4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse," made during his time at the Royal Academy in London, appears to be an effort to meet academic expectations. The exhibition text links a screaming black face amidst a chaotic scene of tormented figures to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, then Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This interpretation positions Bowling as both a postwar existentialist grappling with profound horrors and a Black artist reflecting on the postcolonial experience.

"Beggar No 5" (1962–63) exhibits such a profound influence from Francis Bacon that, were it not for its compelling subject matter, it might be dismissed as a youthful imitation. This piece hinted at a potential career path for Bowling as a "professionally Caribbean artist," creating works about "cane-cutting and suffering," as he once described it.