for Academics

A guide to the scholarly literature on Frank Bowling for researchers, curators and postgraduate students. The selection below moves from the most comprehensive surveys to more specialist studies.

For the complete list, including press and the artist’s own writing, see the full bibliography.

The most comprehensive studies

The standard references for the career as a whole, and the essential starting point for new research.

  • Gooding, Mel. Frank Bowling, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2011 (2nd revised edition, 2015)
  • Crippa, Elena (ed.). Frank Bowling, exh. cat., Tate Britain, London, 2019 (signed limited edition, 2025)
  • Enwezor, Okwui (ed.). Frank Bowling: Mappa Mundi, exh. cat., Haus der Kunst, Munich; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, 2017

Periods and bodies of work

Focused studies of particular decades, techniques or series.

  • Thüring, Reto, Akilli Tommasino and Debra Lennard (eds.). Frank Bowling’s Americas: New York, 1966–75, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, 2022
  • Gooding, Mel. Frank Bowling: The Map Paintings 1967–1971, exh. cat., Hales Gallery, London, 2013 (2nd revised edition, 2015)
  • Martin, Courtney J. Frank Bowling: The Poured Paintings, exh. cat., Hales Gallery, London, 2015
  • Gammon, Pia (ed.). Trying It Out. Trying It On. Trying To Do It Better. Frank Bowling, exh. cat., Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2022

Race, identity and post-war British art

Writing that situates Bowling within debates on Black British art, the diaspora and the post-war canon.

  • Désir, Dorothy and Spencer A. Richards. Bending the Grid: Black Identity and Resistance in the art of Frank Bowling, exh. cat., Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, 2003
  • Chambers, Eddie, Caroline Collier and Martin Gayford, et al. Frank Bowling: Bowling on Through the Century, exh. cat., The City Gallery, Leicester and touring, 1996–1997
  • Price, Dorothy. Frank Bowling: Landscape, exh. cat., Hauser & Wirth, West Hollywood, 2023

More specialist material

Narrower studies and early primary sources, for researchers already working in the field.

  • Cornish, Sam. Frank Bowling: Sculpture, Ridinghouse, London, 2022
  • Doty, Robert M. Frank Bowling, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1971
  • Tancock, John. Frank Bowling, exh. cat., Center for Inter-American Relations, New York, 1973
  • Seidel, Frederick. Frank Bowling Selected Paintings 1967–77, exh. cat., Acme Gallery, London, 1977
  • Bowling’s own essays and criticism are listed under Artists’ books & writing in the full bibliography
  • Recorded conversations and conference papers are listed under Talks and lectures