
Frank Bowling’s Americas: New York, 1966–75
IN 1969 THE BRITISH-GUYANESE painter Frank Bowling curated a show at the art gallery of Stony Brook University that included, along with himself, five African American artists. Bowling had arrived in New York City three years before looking to draw further inspiration from Color Field abstract painters like Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. Titled “5+1,” the show featured Melvin Edwards, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Al Loving, Jack Whitten, and William T. Williams; Bowling would later recall that his impetus had been to provide “greater exposure for the abstract artists who happened to be Black.”