FRANK WALTER

Exhibited in Los Angeles will be a representative selection of paintings that span the breadth of Walter’s recurrent subject matter—vividly colored landscapes, vignettes, and portraits, among others—with a focused installation of intimate, tondo-format paintings from the artist’s Spool series. Made late in Walter’s life and in part influenced by memories of a transatlantic journey he endured aboard a ship, these works reveal his fascination with both capturing and conjuring a unique vision of nature. Appearing like portholes and serving as portals, Walter’s Spool paintings embody many of the themes of his broader oeuvre and those of this exhibition. Informed by anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s concept of the five “scapes” of globalization, this presentation considers in particular how Walter’s compositions touch on the dreamscape, landscape, and ethnoscape, offering a multivalent understanding of the artist’s visual world—one where the racial, genealogical, geographical, historical, and imaginary converge. We are grateful to Frank Walter’s family, and to consulting curator Dr. Barbara Paca OBE, for their support and collaboration.