Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling

Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling, organized by the Modern and Curator María Elena Ortiz, celebrates the work of two tour de force artists, exhibited together for the first time, and highlighting their respective contributions to the story of late-twentieth-century abstract painting. After leaving their native Guyana, and though appearing to share similar territory in basing themselves in London, Williams and Bowling trod very separate paths in their respective artistic development and careers.

The exhibition presents works from Williams’s expansive Shostakovich and Olmec-Maya and Now series, 1980–88, amongst others. Williams was an avid fan of the music of Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich and coined the phrase “feeling color” whilst working on a painterly interpretation of his symphonies and quartets. The latter series was consolidated from Williams’s enduring interest in the remarkable advancement of Pre-Columbian cultures, as a reflection of current philosophies. In dialogue with Williams’s works are several paintings of Bowling’s influential Map series, 1967–71, and his later poured paintings, as evidencing sociopolitical concerns and exploring the materiality of paint.

Williams (1926–90), an artistic prodigy from youth, travelled to the UK in 1952. He toured Britain and Europe extensively in order to closely investigate art and artists he had long admired. Williams’s excitement for the Abstract Expressionist movement peaked on seeing work by artists such as Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Wifredo Lam, and Jackson Pollock. On settling in London, Williams enrolled at St Martin’s School of Art prior to exhibiting and gaining notoriety at the renowned Archer and New Vision Centre galleries in London, later working from studios he established in Jamaica and Florida. Williams was a founding member of the influential Caribbean Artists Movement and was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for Painting in 1965. An important figure in British postwar painting, with works held in major global institutions and collections, Williams demonstrates a unique approach to abstraction, frequently incorporating elements of figuration.

Frank Bowling (b. 1934), OBE, RA, was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in South America and migrated to London in 1953 to study art. Eventually he moved to New York City, keeping studios in both cities. In New York, he cultivated a community that included critic Clement Greenberg and like-minded artists such as Jack Whitten and Al Loving Jr. Bowling was elected to Britain’s Royal Academy in 2005 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008. He is a pivotal figure in British abstract painting, contributing to the canon for over six decades. His work has been exhibited widely and is part of prestigious collections around the world.

Expanding on international legacies of abstraction that are among the Modern’s central concerns, these artists’ works show that art creates space for refuge, reckoning, and imagination. This exhibition puts the artists in conversation, illustrating Williams’s powerful commitment to investigating abstract forms and Bowling’s painterly and experimental approach; together their works provide opportunity to reflect on the power of art and abstraction in the twentieth century.
 

PLATFORM 
Continuing the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting international art from the 1940s to today, the Museum is excited to launch Platform—a new exhibition initiative showing how artists and art histories from across the globe are connected. Illustrating a robust perspective on modern and contemporary art, Platform encompasses a series of artists whose works expand on the Modern’s international mission. Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling is the inaugural presentation, Platform 1, which showcases two integral artists within the canon of twentieth-century abstraction. The Platform series aims to create dynamic dialogues that embody the universal qualities and intersectionality of art, spanning geographic and national boundaries.