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Walton
Ford
Born 1960.
Walton Ford's prints and paintings look like
large-scale descendents of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century
tradition of natural history painting and engraving. 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.
Over the last
year Walton has been visiting the studio to work on his first black-and-white print, Nantes. He's drawn on it,
etched and re-etched it, painted it with spitbite, added and subtracted
drypoint, scraped and burnished it. As we did the final proofing
Walton decided to try bringing back the old 2nd plate, which we
had originally envisioned as a large blue spit-bite and then discarded.
This time he directed us to ink the plate with burnt umber and to
scrape away most of the aquatint from the plate . The result is
a two plate print in black and brown, the brown framing the plate
edge slightly and implying age or decay.The print features a Diana
monkey as the central character and is consistent with the majority
of Walton's work, preserving the use of historical narrative in
the tradition of James Audubon. As in his other prints, the animals
depicted are drawn to scale, and the two plates measure a rather
large 30 by 40 inches.The print with margins is 37 by 48 inches.
After more than a year of work, Walton signed the b.a.t. about two
weeks before his November 2009 show at Paul
Kasmin Gallery. Nantes can be reserved at Kasmin as we proceed
with the edition. This is Walton's first black and white etching.
The edition is sixty-five.
Don't miss Walton's print Bangalore (2004) on view at the New Bedford Art Museum in New Bedford, MA. The print has been included in the show Taking Flight: The Birds of James Audubon. Walton's work is both influenced by and critical of Audubon's pastoral exploration of North American flora and fauna. We are excited to see Bangalore in direct conversation with Audubon. Click here to learn more about the show.
Walton first came here to start his set of six large bird images
in 1998, beginning with Swadeshi-cide. He completed the
series in 2004 with Visitation, the last print in this portfolio.
The whole set was included in the show, “Political Nature”
at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2005 and is part of their
permanent collection.
Walton
Ford - with Wingate Studio - is featured in season 2 of the PBS
series Art 21. For videos, images, and interviews,
visit Walton
Ford's page at the Art 21 website.
There
have been numerous articles about Walton in various magazines and
publications, most recently in the October, 2008 issue of Art In
America.
All
images courtesy of Paul
Kasmin Gallery and the artist. |
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Limed
Blossoms , 2007
6 plate hardground etching, aquatint, spit-bite aquatint,
drypoint, scraping an burnishing.
edition 100
18 1/2 x 14 inches
Published by Taschen
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Condemned,
2006
6 plate hardground etching, aquatint, spit-bite aquatint,
drypoint, scraping an burnishing.
edition 75
21 1/2 x 16 inches
Published by Wingate Studio and Paul Kasmin Editions
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Dying
Words , 2005
6 plate hardground etching, aquatint, spit-bite aquatint
and drypoint.
edition 75
22 x 30 inches
Published by Paul Kasmin |
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Bangalore,
2004
5 plate hardground and etching, aquatint, spit-bite
aquatint and drypoint.
edition 75
21 1/2 x 16 inches
Published by Paul Kasmin Editions
PKE 7152
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Visitation,
2004
six color hardground and softground etching, aquatint, spit-bite aquatint,
drypoint
edition of 50
published by Blue Heron Press
44 x 31 inches
111.8 x 78.7 cm.
PKE 7539 |
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Compromised,
2002
six color hardground and softground etching, aquatint,
spit-bite aquatint, drypoint and roulette
edition of 50
published by Blue Heron Press
44 x 31 inches
111.8 x 78.7 cm.
PKE 6503 |
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Tale
of Johnny Nutkin,
2001
six color hardground and softground etching, aquatint,
spit-bite aquatint and drypoint.
edition 50
published by Blue Heron Press
44 x 31 inches
111.8 x 78.7 cm.
PKE 5601 |
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Benjamin's
Emblem,
2000
six color hardground and softground etching, aquatint,
spit-bite aquatint and drypoint.
edition 50
published by Blue Heron Press
44 x 31 inches
111.8 x 78.7 cm.
PKE 5273 |
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La
Historia Me Absolvera,
1999
six color hardground and softground etching, aquatint,
spit-bite aquatint and drypoint.
edition 50
published by Blue Heron Press
44 x 31 inches
111.8 x 78.7 cm.
PKE 4619 |
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Swadeshi-cide,
1998
six color hardground and softground etching, aquatint,
spit-bite aquatint and drypoint.
edition 50
published by Blue Heron Press
44 x 31 inches
111.8 x 78.7 cm.
PKE 4295 |
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