Walton Ford: 25 Years of Printmaking: Online
-
-
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Walton Ford's first editioned print, Swadeshi-cide (1998), Kasmin is releasing rarely-available copies of the original Limited Art Editions of Pancha Tantra, published by Taschen. This release is contextualized by an online exhibition of a selection of the artist's print works. Spanning the years 1998-2020, the presentation demonstrates Ford's impressive command of the historic technique of intaglio etching and recognizes the invaluable partnership of Peter and James Pettengill's Wingate Studio, where Ford produced each of the works.
-
Walton Ford’s editioned prints expand upon the artist’s mastery of narrative watercolor paintings. Utilizing time-honored copperplate etching techniques originally developed in the 15th century, Ford’s compositions come alive with irresistible anthropomorphic projections of wildlife. This online presentation takes viewers further into the artist’s incisive depictions of nature as informed by cultural and literary history. Loaded with metaphor and shaped by a keenly anthropological eye, Ford’s complex compositions observe both the insistence of human endeavor and the instinctive ingenuity of animals, observing the violence resulting from the will to survive.
-
-
Aquatint etching is a collaborative process that brings together artists with highly specialized skills – both Francisco Goya and John James Audubon were highly proficient in the medium. Many visual and philosophical references find expression in Ford’s work through his observation of nature, both human and animal, through a darkly comic lens.
Ford subverts various conventions relating to humanity’s attempts to categorize and interpret the natural world, drawing on naturalist sketches and dioramas, zoological records, mythology, fables, and art history. While alluding to the form of naturalist field studies from the 19th century, Ford’s coded poetics are wide-ranging in their references, calling upon the viewer to use these fragmented clues as a guide by which to untangle the folkloric, historical, or imaginary event depicted in the work.
-
-
"These are techniques that were developed in a time when,
if you wanted to write someone a letter, you dipped your quill in ink.” —Walton Ford -
Works
-
About the Artist
-
Explore
-
Les Lalanne: Zoophites
From the Collection of Caroline Hamisky Lalanne
Curated by Paul B. Franklin April 4 – May 9, 2024 509 West 27th Street, New YorkAn exhibition in homage to the acclaimed French sculptors Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, drawn entirely from the collection of their eldest daughter, Caroline Hamisky Lalanne. Les Lalanne: Zoophites will include major works by these inventive artists who consistently defied art-world conventions. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Les Lalanne’s first joint solo exhibition, which opened in Paris in June 1964, this exhibition borrows the title Zoophites, an obsolete French term for invertebrate animals that resemble plants in their appearance or growth patterns. The exhibition will be accompanied by a newly commissioned text by curator Paul B. Franklin. -
William N. Copley: LXCN CPLY
April 4 – May 11, 2024 297 Tenth Avenue, New YorkWilliam N. Copley: LXCN CPLY will explore the artist’s repertoire of recurring imagery and is the first exhibition to center Copley’s development of his signature visual language. LXCN CPLY draws this thread through five decades of the artist’s career, focusing on a selection of exemplary paintings and drawings from the late 1940s through the 1990s, alongside archival material, documentation and key objects relating to the work on view. The exhibition is co-organized with the William N. Copley Estate, which Kasmin has represented since 2010. -
Sara Anstis: Small Works
April 30 – May 30, 2024 514 West 28th Street, New York
-