Frank Walter

This publication has been produced to accompany an exhibition staged by Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, for the 2021 Edinburgh Art Festival. The exhibition is the first devoted to Frank Walter's 'spools' - the small circular paintings which, in their consistency of scale and form, provide a lens through which to witness the workings of Walter's inner eye.

Walter's work was unknown during his lifetime, but in the decade since his death he has emerged as one of the most distinctive and intriguing Caribbean voices of the last fifty years. Painted with a rare directness and immediacy on whatever material came most readily to hand, his works describe a visionary artist rooted in the landscape of Antigua, the island of his birth.

150 illustrations

About the Authors

Barbara Paca is an art historian and landscape architect. She holds a PhD from Princeton University and was awarded postdoctoral fellowships as a Fulbright Scholar and at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. She serves as Cultural Envoy to Antigua and Barbuda and in 2017 curated Antigua and Barbuda’s inaugural Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Paget Henry is Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including Caliban’s Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy and Shouldering Antigua and Barbuda: The Life of V.C. Bird. He is the editor of The CLR James Journal and also of The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books.

Mary-Elisabeth Moore is a graduate student at CUNY Hunter College. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is the first graduate student to dedicate her study to the legacy of Frank Walter.

Kenneth M. Milton is sole conservator for the family of Frank Walter. He has worked for a number of leading museums and academic institutions in the United States. For the last ten years he has immersed himself in the world of Frank Walter.

Frank Walter (1926–2009) was born on Horsford Hill, Antigua. In the 1950s he travelled in Scotland, England and West Germany, pursuing various creative activities including drawing, painting and creative writing. He returned to the Caribbean in 1961, resulting in a prolific output of painting, drawing, writing, sculpture, photography and sound art.