Continuous Transformation of the Canvas: “Frank Bowling: Creation and Destruction” at Pera Museum

Pera Museum presents the work of Frank Bowling, a monumental figure in British painting, to Istanbul audiences for the first time from September 29, 2026, to January 31, 2027. Curated by Alistair Hicks, the exhibition “Frank Bowling: Creation and Destruction” frames Bowling’s central artistic universe in direct dialogue with two powerhouse figures of post–World War II British art: Francis Bacon and Victor Willing.

Sustaining a practice spanning over six decades across the London–New York axis, Frank Bowling continually stretches the boundaries between abstraction and memory, geometry and spontaneity. While rendering visible the tensions between creation and destruction, order and chaos, control and chance, the exhibition defines painting not as a finished surface, but rather as an arena of continuous transformation. Among the standout works debuting in the selection are paintings from the artist’s iconic Map series (1967–71), alongside Revisiting My Mother’s House (2026), a piece centering on his childhood memories in Guyana.

Described by curator Alistair Hicks as “compasses that navigate a path through Bowling’s paintings,” the interventions of Francis Bacon and Victor Willing reveal the intersecting and diverging trajectories of these three painters. Bacon’s Portrait of Lisa (1956), Study for Nude (1952–53), and Portrait of R. J. Sainsbury (1955), alongside Willing’s Head VI (1985) and Knight Errant (1978), shatter established molds between figuration and abstraction, gathering radical answers under one roof to the question: “What can painting become?”