A remarkable late work, ‘Crossings: East West Tunnel’ (2011) is an outstanding example of Frank Bowling’s ‘Crossing’ series and his ongoing exploration of the materiality of paint. Sitting against a pale, textured backdrop – comprised of acrylic gel coated with light blue and turquoise washes – bursting blue, yellow and red bands dissect the centre of the canvas. Bowling’s hallmark use of marouflage, which he began employing as a structural solution during the 1980s, frames the composition with contrasting strips of secondary canvas that form a border around the edges of the work.
Born in Guyana (then British Guiana) in 1934, Bowling travelled to London in 1953 to study at the Royal College of Art alongside contemporaries such as David Hockney and R.B. Kitaj. During the mid-1960s, he moved to New York and away from figurative painting toward large-scale, lyrical abstractions. Later, he would divide his time between his London and New York studios. Memories of each place underscore Bowling’s practice, which combines a highly personal take on American Colour Field painting with a long-standing interest in British art, notably the work of Francis Bacon and J.M.W. Turner.
Over the last two decades, Bowling has become increasingly experimental, combining different styles, techniques, and formats from his previous series. The horizontal drips, which guide the viewer’s gaze across the centre of the composition, are a nod to his ‘Poured Paintings’ from the 1970s while the straight yet jagged lines that comprise the background recall his ‘Zipper’ paintings from 2009. These experimentations with acrylic paint – staining with pure colour, building up thick layers with palette knives, and dripping diluted washes of colour across his canvases – capture Bowling’s profound understanding of the possibilities and nuances of his medium.
As disparate as his techniques, Bowling’s titles reference everything from the names of family members and friends to memories and political events. As Bowling explained, he names his works once they are finished, using the title to ‘try to reconnect it to what happened during my actual making of the work’. [1] In ‘Crossings: East West Tunnel’, Bowling alludes to geographical associations, reflecting on the scale and scope of a prodigious career that has unfolded while crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. For Elena Crippa, Bowling’s titles ‘act as riddles’, and are part of the artist’s strategy ‘of resisting being defined and confined by language, of standing off against forms of control and oppression. His, after all, is a poetic language which, by definition, use and combines words in order to maintain the overall meanings as multiple and fluid’. [2]
A complex synthesis of transatlantic influences and autobiographical details, Bowling’s relentlessly innovative work continues to push the boundaries of painting. Accordingly, ‘Crossings: East West Tunnel’ captures Bowling’s perpetual experimentation as well as his invitation of chance and ceaseless inquiry into the materiality of paint, which positions him among the more preeminent Post-War painters working today.
