Victor Willing, Knight Errant, 1978, Oil on canvas, 200 × 240 cm © The Estate of Victor Willing
Creation and Destruction brings together works by the British Guayanian artist Sir Frank Bowling and two other key figures from post-war British art, Francis Bacon and Victor Willing. With the spotlight firmly on Bowling, the exhibition traces the three artists’ creative paths as they ‘converge, diverge and intersect once again’. Curated by Alistair Hicks, author of The Global Art Compass: New Directions in 21st Century Art, a survey of 21st century art, it is the first time Bowling’s work has been shown in Istanbul. The exhibition explores the constant experimentation and reinvention in his work. Painting, in Bowling’s mind, emerges ‘not as a completed surface but as a process of continual transformation’: creation and destruction, order and chaos, chance and control are all part of the mix.
Frank Bowling, Kitty, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 68.5 × 173 cm
Courtesy the artist © Frank Bowling. All rights reserved, DACS 2026. Photograph: by Jess Littlewood
Working between London and New York for more than six decades, Bowling has continually challenged established classifications, moving freely between abstraction and memory, geometry and spontaneity. Spanning the breadth of his practice, the exhibition brings together iconic works alongside recent and previously unseen paintings. These include paintings from the celebrated Map series (1967–71), Kitty, from Bowling’s 2009 Zipper series, as well as Mother’s House Revisited (2026), in which Bowling returns to the image of the house where he spent his childhood in Guyana.
Portrait of R. J. Sainsbury (Robert Sainsbury), 1955, Oil on canvas, 115 × 99 cm
© The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2026, Courtesy of Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia.
Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
Victor Willing, Knight Errant, 1978
Oil on canvas, 200 × 240 cm © The Estate of Victor Willing
Displayed alongside Bowling’s paintings are works by Francis Bacon and Victor Willing, which Hicks deems ‘interruptions’. – ‘compass points in getting one’s bearings among Bowling’s works’, in which they reveal the distinct and intersecting aspects of the three painters’ practices. Bacon’s Portrait of Lisa (1956) and Study of a Nude (1952–53), together with Willing’s Head VI (1985), created in the final years of his life, brings new perspectives to Bowling’s practice.
Frank Bowling: Creation and Destruction brings to Istanbul audiences a fresh perspective on the experimental approach that shaped post-war British painting. Rather than reinforcing established divisions between abstraction and figuration, it reveals how artistic explorations emerged through shared encounters and radically different responses to the same enduring question: What can a painting become?
This exhibition is organised in collaboration with the British Consulate-General, Istanbul.
Main picture (top): Frank Bowling, Portrait of my Father, 1960. Oil on canvas, 84 × 58.5 cm Courtesy the artist.© Frank Bowling. All rights reserved, DACS 2026. Photograph: Rose Jones
Victor Willing, Knight Errant, 1978, Oil on canvas, 200 × 240 cm © The Estate of Victor Willing
