Thanks to water: The floating discipline and poems of Frank Bowling

Between 1956 and 1957 the painter Frank Bowling wrote poems which have never been published. This article examines two of the three poems Bowling submitted to New Poems: 1957, a London-based publisher of poem anthologies. Working with the Frank Bowling Archive and carrying out interviews, this article explores how Bowling’s poems might relate to his paintings and life. This article is written chronologically in the order of Bowling’s life but weaves in and out to connect paintings, writing and poetry. The main overarching narrative spans from the moment of his birth in Guyana in 1934 up to his studies at the Royal College of Art in 1962, while also referencing recent works and studio methods employed today. A focus in this article is the reoccurring theme of water as a central aspect underpinning Bowling’s thinking.