Ursula

Films

Frank Bowling: London / New York with Mark Godfrey and Courtney Martin

The art historians compare notes via telephone from Bowling’s respective transatlantic presentations

  • 9 August 2021

On the occasion of his inaugural exhibition with the gallery, Sir Frank Bowling’s work was presented in both the gallery’s London and New York locations simultaneously. Here, art historian Mark Godfrey and Courtney Martin, director of the Yale Center for British Art, discuss the breadth Bowling‘s work over the past 50 years and the ways in which each city has shaped his social and artistic worldview, helping him to stretch the boundaries of abstraction.

‘He liked meeting new people. He liked being out. He liked the kind of flow of bodies up and down Broadway, but in order to actually get the work done, he had to withdraw from it.’—Courtney Martin

‘Frank Bowling: London / New York’ is on view at Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street, 5 May – 30 July 2021 and Hauser & Wirth London, 21 May – 31 July 2021. The eponymous book from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, featuring an essay by Mark Godfrey, is available now.