
Not on display
- Artist
- Frank Bowling born 1934
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 3100 × 2168 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the artist, Rachel Scott, and their 4 children: Benjamin and Sacha Bowling, Marcia and Iona Scott 2013
- Reference
- T13936
Display caption
Bowling is a contemporary of Hockney and his early work was influenced by Bacon. This painting is about aspiration and inclusion. The staircase is one at the Royal College of Art and the rest of the scene combines contemporary interior design with fashionable art such as that of the op artist Victor Vasarely. Bowling appears twice, once poised at the top, and again arriving at the bottom of the stairs, a conflicted figure caught between two worlds. Despite early success, Bowling had reason to feel excluded and this work can be seen as an expression of the resulting frustration.
Gallery label, September 2016
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Film and audio
Features
Explore
- abstraction(8,612)
-
- from recognisable sources(3,632)
-
- figure(2,268)
- features(8,872)
-
- floor(73)
- stair / step(514)
- stairwell(19)
- tile(18)
- domestic(1,790)
- furnishings(3,069)
- actions: postures and motions(9,102)
-
- descending(16)
- sitting(3,334)
- Bacon, Francis(31)
- figure(203)
- UK London(1,638)
You might like
-
Carel Weight Miss Orovida Pissarro
1956 -
Robert Colquhoun Woman with Still Life
1958 -
Evert Lundquist Woman in Red
1956–7 -
Jean Cooke (Jean Bratby) Self-Portrait
1958 -
Francis Bacon Reclining Woman
1961 -
Francis Bacon Study for Portrait on Folding Bed
1963 -
Olwyn Bowey Portrait Sketch of L.S. Lowry
1963–64 -
Willem de Kooning The Visit
1966–7 -
Francis Bacon Triptych August 1972
1972 -
Geoffrey Tibble The Mug
1948 -
Francis Bacon Sketch for ‘Figure Lying, No. 1’
c.1959–61 -
Frank Bowling Who’s Afraid of Barney Newman
1968 -
Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola) Nude on a Chaise Longue
1950 -
Aubrey Williams Death and the Conquistador
1959 -
Uzo Egonu Woman in Grief
1968