CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/7/2018

A rupture between reality and fantasy in 'Frank Walter: The Last Universal Man'

“Abstract Shark and Three Spheres” (no date) is reproduced from Frank Walter: The Last Universal Man, 1926–2009, the first major monograph on the prolific, somewhat delusional mixed-race Antiguan artist and writer who insisted on his own high-born, Anglican identity—linking himself to figures such as Mary, Queen of Scotts and Adolf Hitler—despite a lifelong experience of racism and rejection by those he sought to impress. “Where he viewed himself as a white man, others saw a black man—creating a rupture between reality and fantasy that affected all areas of his life,” Nina Khruscheva writes. “As all artists of genius do, Walter foresaw the future, and he never lost hope that one day [the world would] see him as he wanted to be seen—as an artist who transformed his imperfect reality into a work of art.”