Walton Ford

Exhibition Catalogue Walton Ford, at the musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris (15 september 2015 - 14 feb. 2016).

Combining monumental formats with the precision of a miniature painter, Walton Ford’s watercolours can be likened to the finest zoological illustrations from the 19th century – the comparison with the ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon (1785-1821) is inevitable – but the artist mischievously robs them of any scientific intent.

The paintings, based on Ford’s meticulous draughtsmanship, depict a wealth of exotic fauna that comprises elephants, tigers, monkeys, rhinoceroses, lions and birds…

In addition to its reference to a scientific aesthetic, Walton Ford’s wildlife looks to other visual sources for inspiration, in particular American cartoons from the 60s and 70s. The biting humour and symbolism of these pieces also indicates a certain affiliation between the artist and the Surrealists.

With its meticulous realism and ‘handmade’ aspect, Ford’s painting deliberately plays with those criteria usually attributed to kitsch objects and as such, represents an attempt to subvert contemporary art’s academic codes, inherited from Marcel Duchamp and his ready-mades. And yet, through the themes it tackles, Ford’s art is part of a very contemporary cultural movement that questions the limits between man and beast.