Art / arnolfini
Major new exhibition coming to Arnolfini in summer 2021
As part of the gallery’s 60th anniversary celebrations, the Arnolfini will be exhibiting the works of pioneering artist Sir Frank Bowling.
The exhibition, held from July 3 to September 26, 2021, will include new and previously unseen works from the artist, whose work hasn’t been exhibited since a retrospective at the Tate Britain in 2019.
Described as a “modern master”, Bowling’s work experiments with the painted surface to explore abstraction and memory.
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The artist’s innovations in technique have changed the practice of painting and, aged 86, he still is still creating work that “crackles with experimental energy”.
Arnolfini’s exhibition of one of the UK’s greatest living painters will feature artworks such as 2019’s El Dorado with my shirt collar, referencing his childhood in Guyana, as well as new pieces.
Both created in 2020, As Above So Below and Oriented Light hark back to previous works while also exploring light, colour and scale.
El Dorado with my shirt collar, Frank Bowling, 2019, acrylic paint and acrylic gel on collaged canvas. Courtesy of Sir Frank Bowling Kt OBE RA and Hauser & Wirth (c) Sir Frank Bowling. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021. Photography by Angus Mill
As Above So Below, Frank Bowling, 2020, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Sir Frank Bowling Kt OBE RA and Hauser & Wirth (c) Sir Frank Bowling. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021
A new publication will accompany the summer exhibition, focusing on the past ten years of Bowling’s work.
The exhibition is the first to be announced at the Arnolfini since the beginning of England’s third lockdown.
When the gallery reopens, A Picture of Health and From Fairy Tales to Phototherapy will be available to view until Sunday, May 30. Bridges for Communities, a local response to Hassan Hajjaj’s 2020 exhibition, will be at exhibited until Friday, April 30.
Main photo: Sacha Bowling
Read more: Arnolfini to reopen with major new exhibition
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