Frank Bowling

by Mel Gooding

Now in paperback with superb new reproductions, this is the first comprehensive monograph on the art of Frank Bowling. Mel Gooding explores Bowling's unique and virtuosic abstract style and his gorgeous use of color, and establishes him as one of the finest artists of his generation in a book that spans Bowling s entire 45-year career. Born in Guyana in 1936, Bowling arrived in England in his late teens, studied at the Royal College of Art alongside David Hockney, and by the early 1960s had established himself as an original force in the vibrant London art scene. A move to New York exposed Bowling to his American contemporaries and his work was shown in the 1971 Whitney Biennial. Today, Bowling shows regularly at major galleries and museums worldwide, and his work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Tate in London.

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Mel^Gooding
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Mel Gooding (b. Ipswich, Suffolk, UK 1941 - d. London 2021) studied English at the University of Sussex (1962-66). He taught at at Furzedown College of Education, in Streatham, West London College, Wandle primary school, in Earlsfield, Rachel McMillan College of Education, in Deptford, and the Sidney Webb College (incorporated into the Polytechnic of Central London) before becoming a freelance writer in the 1980s. He wrote catalogues of artists, including one on Frank Bowling (2011) that was expanded in 2021 and contributed to William Furlong’s Audio Arts ((1973-2007), a magazine produced on cassette. He collaborated with the artist Bruce Mclean (1944) and they published, under Knife Edge Press, the artists' books featuring Mclean's screenprints: Dreamwork (1985), Ladder (1986), A Scone Off a Plate (1990) and Knife Edge Academy: The Prospectus (1992), the first two of which were acquired by the Contemporary Art Society and presented to Southampton City Art Gallery and Chelmsford Museum. In 2013 Knife Edge Press was given a retrospective exhibition at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee. Mel was also senior research fellow at Edinburgh College of Art (1998-2005), and in 2006 was made a professor at Wimbledon College of Art. He also organised exhibitions such as FE McWilliam, Tate Gallery (1989), Ceri Richards: Themes and Variations, National Museum of Wales and touring (2002-03), and Gillian Ayres: Select Retrospective, the Royal West of England Academy (2004).