Frank Bowling – From Figuration to Abstraction | Artist Interview | TateShots

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The artist reflects on his career and the impact of moving from London to New York.

'I realised that one of the main ingredients in making paintings was colour and geometry', says the artist.

Born in Guyana (then British Guiana) in 1934, at 19 years old Frank Bowling moved to London. He went on to study painting at the Royal College of Art alongside David Hockney and R.B. Kitaj.

As Bowling reflects on his long career, he remarks that his shift from figuration to abstraction came when he moved from London to New York.

'As I became more involved in the making of paintings, I realised that one of the main ingredients in making paintings was colour and geometry. And in New York I found ways of proceeding to deepen my investigations in that area', says the artist. 'New York was very much the place where it was all happening.'

After moving to New York, the artist began working on a series paintings where poured paint directly onto canvas.

'It was spilling, dripping, rushing', says Bowling. 'It’s a process of a ground all over, the canvas tacked to the wall, the pouring and throwing and spilling and dripping takes place, then the material is allowed to settle, and once it starts drying you sort of pull it back up the wall, so that it can be completely dried out.'

'It all happens very much in an extempore way. I don’t have any pre-planned idea about how I’m going to make a painting.'