Frank Bowling
b. 1936, Guyana
Guyana-born British artist, considered one of the most distinguished black artists to emerge from post-war British art schools. Part of the famous class of 1962 at the Royal College of Art, which included David Hockney, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips, the generation who laid the foundation of Pop Art in Britain. At graduation, Hockney won the gold medal while Bowling won the silver. A transfer of residence to New York a few years later exposed Bowling to his American contemporaries and won him a place in the 1971 Whitney Biennial. Since that time Bowling has been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships. In 2005 he became the first black British artist to be elected as a Royal Academician and received an OBE in 2008 for services to art.