Frank Bowling: ‘Guiltiest pleasure? Sixteen-year-old whisky. My doctor says I shouldn’t’
Frank Bowling, the 92-year-old painter born in British Guiana (now Guyana), reflects on his life and career in a Q&A interview. He discusses his move to the UK at 19, his silver medal from the Royal College of Art, a Guggenheim fellowship, his 1971 Whitney Museum exhibition of "map paintings," becoming the first Black artist elected a Royal Academician in 2005, and his 2019 Tate Britain retrospective. His current exhibition, *Seeking the Sublime*, is on view at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, until January 2027. The interview covers his artistic process, personal habits (including his fondness for Lagavulin 16-year-old whisky), and reflections on family, ambition, and mortality.