![]() ![]() The stories these paintings tell are sometimes obscure, sometimes unbelievable, and often tragic. Photography did much to kill representational painting, and plenty of visual artists today can’t draw worth a plug nickel, but Ford’s post-modernism is grounded in serious skill.Ī birthday gift of the Taschen edition of Ford’s work is the (belated) context for these remarks.įord makes notes around the images, quotes from historic sources, and even paints on faux mold stains and foxing to make them look authentically archival. Watercolor, gouache, pencil, and ink on paper are his usual media. For starters, the draftsmanship, that is, the actual representational skill, is extraordinary. ![]() The paintings are epic, gorgeous, angry, sly, historically freighted, and lusciously painterly all at once. The big canvases, which are both homage to and critique of John James Audubon and Western ways of looking at, and killing, nature, were amazing, filling me with awe. A few years ago when the Brooklyn Museum had its big Walton Ford show, The Tigers of Wrath, I was simply gob-stopped. ![]()
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