Songs of Innocence and Experience, part II: An exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Caribbean artist and polymath Frank Walter (1926-2009)

The first exhibition of Frank Walter’s work took place posthumously in our Edinburgh gallery, in 2013, four years after his death, under a title borrowed from the C18th visionary William Blake - Songs of Innocence & Experience. At that moment Walter’s work was unknown and, not surprisingly perhaps, the first people who responded to his newly discovered paintings were other artists, especially painters, who immediately understood the urgency and astonishing clarity of his vision. It is that connection with artists that we are celebrating in Songs of Innocence and Experience, part II,  this summer’s exhibition for the 2026 Edinburgh Art Festival - an exhibition that extends the context for his work to include artists who Walter never knew, and who didn’t know him, but who have come to know him something of him through his work, and who have either responded directly to his paintings, or whose own work has something to say in conversation with his. 

In the 13 years since that first exhibition Walter’s reputation has widened and finally found its place in the story of 20th century art. He was ‘a pioneer’, according to the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, ‘the Leonardo da Vinci of Antigua’  representing  Antigua and Barbuda at the Venice Biennale in 2017. Major solo exhibitions have followed in museums such as MMK, Frankfurt; the Drawing Centre, New York; and the Garden Museum, London, alongside gallery exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Sao Paulo, London, Hong Kong and New York. In short, Walter is now, deservedly, recognised as one of the key figures of 20th century Caribbean art. 

We are grateful to Frank Walter’s family, and to consulting curator Dr Barbara Paca OBE, for their support and collaboration.