{"data":{"id":"161","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":161,"topgoose_id":2915,"tms_id":161,"display_name":"Frank Bowling","sort_name":"Bowling Frank","display_date":"1936–","begin_date":"1936","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eFrank Bowling began his career in the late 1950s while living in London, where he studied at the Royal College of Art alongside \u003ca href=\"/artists/5274\"\u003eDavid Hockney\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/artists/3462\"\u003eR. B. Kitaj\u003c/a\u003e, making figurative paintings that conveyed social and political content. He started making colorful, largely abstract works soon after moving to New York in 1966, having come into contact with the artists \u003ca href=\"/artists/653\"\u003eJasper Johns\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/artists/1099\"\u003eLarry Rivers\u003c/a\u003e whose drive and energy toward creating a new or personal view through their art influenced him tremendously. As Bowling has stated, “After leaving London to live in New York, I broke loose and began to get much more involved in pure painting.” These early abstract canvases have often been associated with Color Field painting, given Bowling’s use of saturated color and the stained appearance of many compositions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver time, Bowling found “the most comfortable way of dealing with paint [was] . . . by leaning on ready-made shapes and photographs.” The result was a series of works that referenced maps, including \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/477\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDan Johnson’s Surprise\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, which he\nmade using an opaque projector Rivers\nhad introduced to him. With its blurred forms\nsuggestive of the familiar shape of the\nSouth American continent where the artist\nwas raised and a title referencing a\nfriend and fellow artist, this work, which was\nincluded in the 1969 Whitney Annual,\ncan be seen as a bridge between Bowling’s\nearlier figurative work and the poured-\npaint abstractions that he began to make\nin the 1970s.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500012364","wikidata_id":null,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:39:41.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T07:01:46.212-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/161/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/161/exhibitions"}}}}