Description
Explore Frank Walter’s relationship to Antigua through a range of works and writings that express his intimate connection to Caribbean nature, landscape, and place.
“Nothing seems to be reworked-it is as if each piece drew or painted itself without being adjusted, revised, or fussed over.” – Hyperallergic
Influenced by his studies of agriculture and the sugar industry in the former British colony of Antigua as well as his extensive travels in England, Scotland, and West Germany, Walter created work inspired by his thoughts, knowledge, journeys, and surroundings-work that encompassed painting, drawing, writing, sculpture, photography, and sound. This focused selection focuses on paintings-tender, quiet, and lush-that transcend the traditional tourist’s view of island life in favor of perspectives that explore how and why we look at where we are.
Published on the occasion of the 2022 exhibition at David Zwirner, this catalogue includes an introduction by the show’s curator Hilton Als. Barbara Paca, the leading expert on Walter, writes a text detailing her personal experience meeting Walter and being in his presence. An essay by Charlie Porter takes readers on a walk as he muses about Walter’s life and the nature depicted in his paintings. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro travels to Antigua to explore the history of the island and Walter’s lasting impact there.
Frank Walter (1926-2009) was born Francis Archibald Wentworth Walter, on Horsford Hill, Antigua. He spent much of the 1950s traveling and learning advanced agricultural and industrial techniques in England, Scotland, and West Germany. The artist returned to the Caribbean in 1961, where, in addition to painting, drawing, and writing, he began making sculptures, photographs, and sound recordings. In the early 1990s, Walter designed and built his home and studio on Bailey Hill in Antigua, where he spent the remainder of his time in relative isolation, reflecting, writing, and making art inspired by his thoughts, knowledge, journeys, and surroundings. Walter had retrospectives at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, in 2020 and the Pavilion of Antigua and Barbuda at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, and has been the subject of solo exhibitions worldwide.
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose books include Names of New York (2021) and Island People: The Caribbean and the World (2016). Jelly-Schapiro is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and his work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum, and Harper's Magazine, among many other publications. He teaches at NYU.
Hilton Als is an American writer and curator based in New York. His first book, The Women, a meditation on gender, race, and personal identity, was published in 1996. In 2017, Als was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Als is an associate professor of writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts and has taught at Yale University and Smith College, among other universities.
Barbara Paca is a full research professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Paca curated the Frank Walter solo exhibition for the Pavilion of Antigua and Barbuda at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 and the group exhibition Find Yourself: Carnival and Resistance, exploring Carnival in the culture of Antigua and Barbuda, with Nina Khrushcheva, as part of the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. The Frank Walter Catalogue Raisonné project is currently being undertaken by the Walter family and Barbara Paca.
Charlie Porter is a writer from London whose book What Artists Wear was published in 2021. He has written for titles such as Financial Times, The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, and Luncheon.
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