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Night Hawks
Details
Walton Ford (b. 1960)
Night Hawks
signed with the artist's initials 'W.F.' (lower left)
watercolor, gouache, ink and graphite on paper
43 7/8 x 30¼ in. (111.4 x 76.8 cm.)
Executed in 1993.
Night Hawks
signed with the artist's initials 'W.F.' (lower left)
watercolor, gouache, ink and graphite on paper
43 7/8 x 30¼ in. (111.4 x 76.8 cm.)
Executed in 1993.
Provenance
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Brunswick, Maine, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brutal Beauty: Paintings by Walton Ford, September-December 2000.
Further Details
By reviving the Audubon-style illustrations that invoke the pioneering expeditions of Charles Darwin, Walton Ford is able to create a unique niche for himself, operating in an area all his own. Night Hawks is a classic example of his technique. A work on paper featuring his signature bird iconography, meticulously rendered using gouache, watercolor, ink and graphite, Ford creates both imagery and atmosphere, all while maintaining the subtle social commentary that gives his art a sharp cerebral undertone.
Ford’s practice centers on the relationship between man and his ever-changing relationship to nature, and through it, his relationship to his fellow man. Birds are a fitting allegory for this idea, given their pack mentality as shown in Night Hawks, as well as their relative homogeneousness. Likewise, birds were one of the first and most important animals studied by Darwin as the basis for his pivotal 1859 work, On the Origin of Species, as well as the primary focus for another great naturalist- illustrator and influence on Ford, John James Audubon. Ford’s work is undoubtedly informed by these historic scientist-illustrators, but it manages to retain its uniqueness both when compared to the works of his spiritual predecessors and his contemporaries working today.
Ford’s practice centers on the relationship between man and his ever-changing relationship to nature, and through it, his relationship to his fellow man. Birds are a fitting allegory for this idea, given their pack mentality as shown in Night Hawks, as well as their relative homogeneousness. Likewise, birds were one of the first and most important animals studied by Darwin as the basis for his pivotal 1859 work, On the Origin of Species, as well as the primary focus for another great naturalist- illustrator and influence on Ford, John James Audubon. Ford’s work is undoubtedly informed by these historic scientist-illustrators, but it manages to retain its uniqueness both when compared to the works of his spiritual predecessors and his contemporaries working today.
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