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 these two artists and their contributions to the story of abstract painting in the late twentieth century. Williams (1926–90) and Bowling (b. 1934) migrated from British Guiana (now Guyana) in South America to European and American cities in the 1950s, escaping social upheavals in their native country. Expanding on the international legacies of abstraction that are among the Modern’s central concerns, these artists’ works show that, even in moments of despair, art creates a space for refuge, reckoning, and imagination. This exhibition puts both artists in conversation, illustrating Williams’s powerful commitment to investigating abstract forms and Bowling’s painterly and experimental approach. Williams was Bowling’s elder, and together their works provide an opportunity to reflect on the power of art and abstraction in the twentieth century.

Feeling Color presents Bowling’s influential Map series, 1967–71, and his later poured paintings, which evidence sociopolitical concerns and explore the materiality of paint. Williams’s works include examples from two painting series, Shostakovich, 1969–81, and The Olmec-Maya and Now, 1981–85, alongside other paintings and drawings. These works reflect the artists’ histories by combining modernist abstraction with imagery derived from African diasporic dwellings and the Indigenous cultures of South America, each pointing to the complexity of their postcolonial heritage. These are works that embrace color, movement, experimentation, and abstraction to convey human emotion.

Aubrey Williams, born in British Guiana, is an important figure in British postwar painting, representing an approach toward abstraction that incorporates cross-cultural and transatlantic conversations. Originally trained as Agricultural Field Officer in Guyana, Williams moved to London in the 1950s to study engineering but changed course, earning an art degree from the St. Martin’s School of Art. The artist travelled extensively throughout Europe, created works in Jamaica and Florida in the 1960s and 1970s, and eventually settled in London until his death. Awarded the Commonwealth Prize in Painting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, Williams was a founding member of the 1960s Caribbean Artists Movement in London. His works have been exhibited internationally and are included in several prestigious collections in the US and Britain.

Frank Bowling OBE RA 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. Born in British Guiana, Bowling migrated to London in the 1950s to study art. Eventually, he moved to New York City, keeping art 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. His work has been exhibited widely and is part of prestigious collections around the world.