Frank Bowling: Frankie
I first met Frank Bowling through the lithograph that hung in my Grandparent’s front room. A beautiful black and white portrait of a black man by my Grandfather Keith Critchlow, reminiscent of Rembrandt and other Old Master prints and drawings found during visits to The National Gallery and British Museum whilst studying.
I can’t imagine, at the time, that I was conscious of its meaning – that of being a black man – but on reflection, I see how obviously, yet unknowingly, significant it was to me. I was 18 and studying at City & Guilds of London Art School when I properly met Frank Bowling, putting a real-life presence to the face in my Grandfather’s portrait, and from which I began to form a deeper worldly understanding of who the man, lovingly referred to as ‘Frankie’ by my Grandparents, was as both an artist and friend.