Walton Ford

Looking at the two images on the screen you might think that they were both made by the same artist.They are not. The image on the left is by John James Audubon, and the image on the right is by Walton Ford.

Audubon is famous for his documentation of American birds during the early 19th century. His work is extensive and his methods might be somewhat surprising. He killed most of his bird subjects first and then used wires to propthem up into lifelike poses.

Walton Ford is a self-described “enthusiast”of Audubon and his style is heavily influ-enced by him. There are drastic differenc-es, however, if you look closely.

Compare.

A self described “maximalist”, his paintings often fill the canvas with detailed imagery and multiple levels of storyline. He works mainly in watercolor, but also uses oil, acryl-ics, and pencil. While staying faithful to the style of natural history books and field guides, Ford paints on a much more enormous scale. The scenes he paints are filled with drama, “capturing moments when the natural order changes, such as the last member of a species struggling just before extinction.”

Details.

The work of Beatrice Aurora is a good ex-ample of maximalism. It is the opposite of minimalism or art which uses almost no imag-ery in its design. Someone like Walton Ford or Beatrice Aurora instead uses as much detail as possible in their works of art.

Details.

“Each of Ford’s animal portraits doubles as a complex, symbolic system, which the artist layers with clues, jokes, and erudite lessons in colonial literature and folktales. The scenes are often violent and full of a dark humor which Ford appreciates. His life size birds and animals often serve as metaphorical stand-ins for different cultures in allegorical narratives. Extinction, greed, power, naturalism, humor, the grotesque, are all repeating elements in Ford’s work.”

Ford’s importance as an artist lies in his unique abil-ity to use his painting to comment on the human con-dition, the history of colonialism, and the continuing impact of slavery and other forms of political oppres-sion on today’s social and environmental landscape.

Symbols.

For example, in this piece called “The Sensorium”, you can see some of the monkeys fighting, one drinking wine, one glaring mysteriously at the viewer, and all of them appear to be involved in some kind of gluttony within a landscape that resembles the African countryside. Is Ford saying something here about how European colonizers behaved? Can you find any part of the scene that might be relevant to our Amer-ican culture today?

Symbols.

What could Ford be saying with this image called “Jack in his Death-bed”? Does the erupting volcano int he background or the environ-ment that the animal is in make you think of anything?

Message.

You try it.

Can you take a classic style that you’ve seen before, maybe in a museum or a book, and reuse it to say some-thing about your country, history, or an event that you find interesting?

Think about shock value. What can you make that appears to be normal, but when you look at the details is really out of the ordinary?

Teach people something by rearranging something old.

PBS.org/art21Kohngallery.com/fordPaulkasmingallery.com/artists/walton-fordWingatestudio.com/fordNymag.comNga.gov

Notes