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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.

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

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

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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