On Frank Walter: Claire Gilman and Barbara Paca in conversation

Spring Term, sees the return of the Royal Drawing School's Creative Conversations; dialogues between artists, curators and writers. Curated by Dr Claudia Tobin, lectures are held on Wednesday evenings.

As an independent charity we rely on donations to keep our programmes accessible and open to everyone. If you would like to support our free Lecture Series you can make a donation here.

Gilman and Paca will discuss the life and work of the visual artist and polymath Frank Walter who was born and died on the island of Antigua. He produced over 5,000 paintings, 1,000 drawings, 600 sculptures, 2,000 photographs, 468 hours of recordings, and a 50,000-page archive over the course of his lifetime.

'Untitled' (Arawak Ceremony), Oil on single-ply, Frank Walter © Frank Walter Family

Claire Gilman is Chief Curator at The Drawing Center in New York. Over the past thirteen years, she has overseen the museum’s curatorial program, organising more than fifty exhibitions and public programmes and authoring numerous catalogues. Gilman holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and has taught art history and critical theory at Columbia; the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College; the Corcoran College of Art and Design; The Museum of Modern Art; and the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in addition to lecturing on modern and contemporary art throughout the country and overseas. She has written for Art Journal, CAA Reviews, Documents, Frieze, and October and has authored numerous essays for art books and museum exhibitions. Her book Drawing in the Present Tense, co-authored with Roger Malbert, was recently published by Thames and Hudson.

Barbara Paca is an art historian and landscape architect with a PhD (Princeton University) and many postdoctoral fellowships, including a Fulbright and post at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, as well as Expert Member status of ICOMOS ICAHM as well as ICOMOS IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes. Paca is the author of Frank Walter, The Last Universal Man (2017) and also Ruth Starr Rose: Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World (2015); and the Frank Walter Catalogue for 2013 at Art Basel, Miami Beach. She is Editor of Environmental Justice as a Civil Right, National Pavilion Catalogue for Antigua and Barbuda, Venice Biennale, 2018. Paca is currently serving as Cultural Envoy to Antigua and Barbuda and the Curator for Antigua and Barbuda’s National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Recognized by Her Majesty the Queen with an OBE in 2018 for lifetime achievement in historic preservation and the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

Cover image: 'Untitled' (Arawak Ceremony), Oil on single-ply, Frank Walter © Frank Walter Family

Please note this Spring Term lectures will take place either in-person at the School or online, please check the individual event listings for details.