{"id":59114,"date":"2026-06-08T20:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=59114"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:42:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:42:00","slug":"at-92-british-artist-frank-bowling-is-still-trying-to-make-the-best-painting-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=59114","title":{"rendered":"At 92, British artist Frank Bowling is still trying to make the best painting ever"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Every day, the British artist Frank Bowling goes to his London studio and tries to create the best painting the world has ever seen. He is 92 and has not lost hope. Along the way, there has been brutality, fear, poverty, disappointment, sorrow and, for many years, invisibility.<\/p>\n

Recognition has arrived late. In 2005, he became the first black artist elected to London\u2019s Royal Academy of Arts. In 2019, when Tate Britain held a retrospective of his 60-year career, the headline of The Guardian\u2019s five-star review was: \u201cApocalyptic visions from a shunned giant of British art\u201d.<\/em> He was 86 when he was knighted.<\/p>\n

Now Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong is holding his first solo exhibition in East Asia. The title, \u201cFrank Bowling. Like Water\u201d, is a reference to what are known as his Poured Paintings, a series he began in the 1970s when he constructed a tilting platform and drenched his canvases with paint from above, layer after layer, to create a torrent of pure colour. His love of the world\u2019s fluid beauty has been lifelong and, like water, he too has persisted against apparently immovable obstacles.<\/p>\n

On a recent morning, he is, of course, at work. His 19th century studio, rented for many years from the local council, is in the aptly named Peacock Yard: you step out of a London-grey street and into a world so vibrant with colourful display that it takes your breath away.<\/p>\n

These days, he directs the pouring process from a wheelchair. Several helpers, including his former personal trainer who was persuaded to exchange the gym for artistic workouts, are monitoring streams of paint down the room\u2019s massive vertical canvases.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Shrill<\/div>
Shrill (2002), by Frank Bowling. Photo: Alex Delfanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"There<\/div>
There Be Dragons (2020), by Frank Bowling. Photo: Alex Delfanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n


\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day, the British artist Frank Bowling goes to his London studio and tries to create the best painting the world has ever seen. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1785,13056,3731,12389,10803],"class_list":["post-59114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-artist","tag-bowling","tag-british","tag-frank","tag-painting","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}