WALTON FORD
Walton Ford is known for his monumental and extremely detailed watercolours depicting wild animals. Fuelled by his fascination with their relationship to man, Ford’s work elaborates on the tradition of natural history painting, whilst infusing it with historical facts and surreal imaginings. The artist interprets and transforms stories and images, drawing from history, literature, underground comic books, legends, myths, popular films, as well as visits to natural history museums, among other sources. Ford says he seeks ‘all these different ways people are put in contact with wild animals they don’t fully understand’.
‘Ford’s creatures have neither the expressions nor the postures found in the old treatises of natural history. Never domesticated, but too intelligent to be only wild, these unclassifiable animals belong to a third genre. Which, in a way, is what Ford aspires to do: as a contemporary artist unlike others, going against the current of the conceptual doxa, developing a kind of “pulp art” which combines in novel ways classical references and the codes of mass culture.’
C. D’Anthenaise and J. Neutres, Walton Ford, exh. cat., Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris; Paris: Flammarion, 2015
Image: Spasmodic Affection, 2019, watercolour, gouache and ink on paper, 273.1 x 152.4 cm.; 107 1/2 x 60 in. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging, Inc.
Artist Talk
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1960
Born in Larchmont, USA
1982
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
European Honors Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Rome
Lives and works in New York, USA
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Alturas Foundation, Boston
Bowdoin College Museum of Art Brunswick
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
De Cordova Museum, Lincoln
Montclair Art Museum
Museum of Modern Art, New York
New Britain Museum of American Art
New York Public Library
Princeton Art Museum
San Antonio Museum of Art
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence
University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Lion of God
Ateneo Veneto, Venice
Birds and Beasts of the Studio
Morgan Library and Museum, New York
2023
A Very Rare Sight
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
2022
Graphic Works
Lyndsey Ingram, London
Gagosian, New York
2021
Aquarelle
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2018
Barbary
Kasmin, New York
New Watercolors
Vito Schnabel Gallery, St. Moritz (catalogue)
2017
Calafia
Gagosian, Beverly Hills (catalogue)
2015
Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (catalogue)
2014
Watercolors
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2011
I don't like to look at him, Jack. It makes me think of that awful day on the island
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2010
Bestiarium
Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, travelled to:
Albertina, Vienna;
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (catalogue)
2009
New Work
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2008
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2007
Tigers of Wrath: Watercolors by Walton Ford
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio
2006
Tigers of Wrath: Watercolors by Walton Ford
Brooklyn Museum, New York (catalogue)
Works on Paper
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
2005
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2004
Bitter Gulfs
Kasmin Gallery at 511, New York
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain
Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
2002
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2000
Kasmin Gallery, New York
Brutal Beauty
Bowdin College Museum of Art, Brunswick
1999
University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach (catalogue)
Kohn-Turner Gallery, Los Angeles
1998
Kasmin Gallery, New York
Aspen Art Museum
1997
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem (catalogue)
Kasmin Gallery, New York
1993
Procrustean Beds
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, in collaboration with Michael Klein, Inc., New York
The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Virginia Beach Center for The Arts
1991
Bess Cutler Gallery, Santa Monica
Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
1990
The Blood Remembers
Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Animal Kingdom
Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Skärhamn
2022
Printmaking in the Twenty-First Century
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Beauty In The Beasts: Animals And Art
Childs Gallery, Boston
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
2021
An Ideal Landscape
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Birds of the Northeast: Gulls to Great Auks
Fairfield University Art Museum
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States, Jackson
2020
Galerie Max Hetzler, London
2019
Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Person to Person
Forum Gallery, New York
Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World
The Getty Center, Los Angeles
2018
History in the Making
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2017
Recent Acquisitions Winter 2018
Galerie Maximillian, Aspen
Naturalia
Kasmin Gallery, New York
2016
On the Origin of Art
Museum of Old And New Art, Hobart, Tasmania
Animal on est mal: La collection du Musée de la Chasse et de la Natural revisitée par Richard Fauguet
Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire, Bussy-Saint-Martin
The Nest
Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah
A Big Enough Umbrella
Wingate Studio, New York
2015
Printer’s Proof: Thirty Years at Wingate Studio
Wingate Studio, Boston
The Annual Exhibition
Childs Gallery, Boston
2014
It’s Just a Shot Away – The Rolling Stones in Photographs
TASCHEN, Los Angeles
Infinite Histories
Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque
2013
One Great Night in November
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
2012
The Bear Necessities
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Grey Full
Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York
2011
Winged Shadows: Life Among Birds
North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks
Traum und Realität
Galerie Siegel-Springmann, Freiburg
2010
The Art of Giving
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
2008
Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities
Museum of Modern Art, New York
2006
Going Ape: Confronting Animals in Contemporary Art
De Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln
Rare Specimen
The Arsenal Gallery, New York
2005
Social Realisms
The Park School, Brooklandville
2004
For the Birds
Artspace, New Haven
Political Nature
The Whitney Museum, New York
Natural Histories: Realism Revisited
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Animals & Us: The Animal in Contemporary Art
The Galerie St. Etienne, New York
Birdspace: A Post-Audubon Artists Aviary
Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, travelled to:
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach;
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers;
McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown;
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson
2003
Creatures That Stir, Symbol & Satire in Animals of Imagination
Palo Alto Art Center
The Great Drawing Show
Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
2002
One Thousand Words
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan
Acquiring Taste
Real Art Ways, Hartford
Resisting Categories: Prints
The Gallery of South Orange, South Orange
Hot and New in 2002
Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York
2001
Natural Histories: Artists Forage in Science and Nature
Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
2000
Deja Vu: Reworking the Past
Katonah Museum of Art
1999
Collectors Gallery XXXIII
The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio
The Great Drawing Show 1550–1999
Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles
Summer Show: 1999
Kasmin Gallery, New York
1998
Wild Thing: Artists Views of the Animal World
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
1997
Summer
Kasmin Gallery, New York
Animal Tales: Contemporary Bestiary and Animal Painting
Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford
1996
Landscapes
Kasmin Gallery, New York
Heroic Painting, curated by Susan Lubowsky
S.E.C.C.A., Winston-Salem
Classics Revisited
Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York
1995
Next of Kin
List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Cambridge
A Vital Matrix
Domestic Setting, Los Angeles
Walton Ford, Jimmie Durham
Ho Gallery, Hong Kong
Americana
Grand Salon, New York
1994
Ashley Bickerton, Jimmie Durham, Walton Ford, Jeff Wall
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York
Points of Interest, Points of Departure
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
American Landscape
Michael Klein, Inc., New York
History 101: The Re-Search for Family
Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis
1993
Living with Art: the collection of Ellyn & Saul Dennison
The Morris Museum, Morristown
Kurswechsel at Transart Exhibitions
Michael Klein, Inc., Cologne
1992
The Landscape as Stage
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia
1991
Junge Americanische und Deutsche Malerei
Galerie Schulze, Cologne
Artists Books from A to B: Contemporary Artists’ Books
Center for Arts Books Exhibition, Harper Collins, New York
In the Looking Glass: Contemporary Narrative Paintings
MINT Museum of ART, Charlotte
Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
1990
A Sense of Place
Montgomery Museum of Fine Art
Critical Revisions
Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
Collectors Choice of Emerging Artists–1990
Vered Gallery, East Hampton, New York
Brut 90
White Columns, New York
1989
American Pi(e)
Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
1988
Un Regard Autre
Farideh Cadot Gallery, Paris
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monographs
Taschen (Ed.): Walton Ford. Pancha Tantra, Cologne, 4th edition, 2020
Vito Schnabel Gallery (Ed.): Walton Ford: Pantherausbruch, St. Moritz, 2018
Gagosian Gallery (Ed.): Walton Ford. Calafia, New York, 2017
Taschen (Ed.): Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past, New York, 2017
Taschen America (Ed.): Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra, Los Angeles, 2015
Flammarion (Ed.): Walton Ford, Paris, 2015
Humlebæk (Ed.): Walton Ford, Copenhagen, 2010
Taschen (Ed.): Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra, Cologne, 2007
Brooklyn Museum (Ed.): Tigers of Wrath: Watercolours by Walton Ford, New York, 2006
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Ed.): Walton Ford: Tigers of Wrath, Horses of Instruction, New York, 2002
Bowdoin College Museum of Art (Ed.): Walton Ford: Brutal Beauty, Brunswick, 2000
University Art Museum, California State University (Ed.): Avatars: the watercolors of Walton Ford, Long Beach, 1999
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Ed.): Walton Ford, Winston-Salem, 1997
Others
Phaidon Press Limited (Ed.): The Lives of Artists, London, 2019
Marta Gnyp / Skira (Eds.): You, Me and Art: Artists in the 21st Century, Milan, 2019
Alan Cristea Gallery (Ed.): History in the Making, London, 2018
Phaidon Press Limited / The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Eds.): The artist project: what artists see when they look at art, London, 2017
Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Ed.): Artists for artists: 51st anniversary exhibition to benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York, 2014
Hans Werner Holzwarth / Taschen (Eds.): Art Now Vol. 4., Cologne, 2013
Hans Werner Holzwarth / Taschen (Eds.): 100 Contemporary Artists, Cologne, 2012
Hans Werner Holzwarth / Taschen (Eds.): Art Now Vol. 3., Cologne, 2009
Whitney Museum of American Art (Ed.): Political nature: works on paper by Walton Ford, Trenton Ford, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Frank Moore and Stephanie Syjuco, New York, 2004
Contemporary Arts Center / University of Washington Press (Eds.): Birdspace: a post-Audubon artists aviary, Seattle, 2004
Harry N. Abrams (Ed.): Art 21: art in the twenty-first century, Vol. 2., New York, 2003
Harry N. Abrams (Ed.): Art 21: art in the twenty-first century, New York, 2001
MIT List Visual Arts Center (Ed.): Next of kin: Looking at Great Apes, Cambridge, 1995
Contemporary Arts Center (Ed.): Walton Ford and Julie Jones, Cincinnati, 1993
Farideh Cadot Gallery (Ed.): Un regard autre: Walton Ford, Gwen Akin, David Hodges, Allan Ludwig, New York, 1987
Videos
Publications
Walton Ford: Aquarelle
Exhibition Poster
2021
€ 20.00
Selected Press
Architectural Digest November 2024
Weltkunst April 2024
Sotheby’s November 2022
Apollo Magazine October 2018
Zoo Magazine Spring 2018
The Brooklyn Rail November 2017
The New Yorker January 2009
Artforum International January 1992