 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | At first glance, Walton Ford s large-scale, highly-detailed watercolors of animals may recall the prints of 19th century illustrators John James Audubon and Edward Lear, and others of the colonial era. But a closer look reveals a complex and disturbingly anthropomorphic universe, full of symbols, sly jokes, and allusions to the 'operatic' nature of traditional natural history themes. The beasts and birds populating this contemporary artist's life-size paintings are never mere objects, but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot in its claw; a troupe of monkeys wreak havoc on a formal dinner table, an American buffalo is surrounded by bloodied white wolves. The book's title derives from The Pancha Tantra, an ancient Indian book of animal tales considered the precursor to Aesop s Fables.
This large-format edition includes an in-depth exploration of Walton Ford s oeuvre, a complete biography, and excerpts from his textual inspirations: Vietnamese folktales and the letters of Benjamin Franklin, the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and Audubon s Ornithological Biography. |
Average Customer Rating:  Nature's Dark Side In most of his paintings Ford depicts the more twisted and ironic elements of nature: perverse portraits of murderous birds with mouthfuls of frogs, drunken monkeys, and wounded rhinos. The most wonderfully disturbing element of his style is its technicality; the paintings are spot on as far as biological and anatomical correctness to the point where they resemble cold, anatomical drawings out of scientific textbooks. In a very upfront way, Ford delves headfirst into ideals of Darwinism, nature vs nurture, symbiosis, cycles of life, biodiversity, and all that happens when nature goes completely awry, all the while telling stories from the Hindu epic Pancha Tantra. Beautiful, harrowing, dramatic, thought provoking, obscene and definitely memorable. The perfect companion for any eclectic coffee table. Walton Ford: affordable Simply amazing collection of Walton Ford's superlative watercolors. An extensive overview of his work, in an oversize volume to allow for the clear reproduction of his oversized and very detailed painting, and yet not much more expensive than an average paperback museum catalog. If you're familiar with Ford's gorgeous (and thoughtful) art, you need this book. If you're not familiar with his work, drop a few bucks on it and check it out. It's really worth it. Questionable Marketing The book is fantastic. No complaints there. Only complaint is that the "signed by the author" etc...text that refers to the $1800.00 version is included on THIS description. Purchaser thought that this was the limited edition and was dissapointed to find out that it was not. It is a bit questionable and confusing. So be warned! Otherwise - FANTASTIC BOOK. The 2009 Art Book of the Year This book at 15 inches tall is packed full of reproductions of panoramic wildlife paintings by Walton Ford. Ford is what you might loosely call a naturalist - a painter of nature with an old fashioned sense of fidelity to the anatomical proportions and whiskered details of God's creations. On top of that he is a fantasy artist who flings his animal subjects into crazy social situations of mischief, conflict and comic chaos. While some of the scenes he paints involve implausible situations, he gives the animals a credible sense of character. Vengeance, humour, calculation - these are just a few of the thought processes infused into the faces and the gestures of these animated beasts.
The original artworks reproduced in this book are monstrous large, with many of the animals (alligators, great apes, tigers etcetera) at least as large as life. Prize of the herd in this book may be the multi-panel painting of a male elephant on heat, titled Nila. At 3.66 metres tall x 5.49 wide, the original artwork is quite literally the size of a young elephant. Playing upon the intimidating size and power of many of these wild animals, Ford often paints them in situations of victory over man. A painting dated 1596 shows a lumbering polar bear triumphant over the bones and personal effects of an explorer, while in the background a shattered sailing ship creaks against an arctic shore.
Also unusual is that these works are all watercolours, painted onto huge sheets of paper. Watercolour normally lends itself to modest, even miniature work, because of the difficulty of handling the medium across large surfaces without washes drying in inconvenient places. Furthermore watercolour on paper is unforgiving when mistakes are made and the consequences of the risks are greater when the painting is on a gigantic scale. Ford works skilfully in the medium making heavy use of the "dry brush" technique - a method that avoids bleeding, helps keep brush lines precise and allows the overlay of variegated colour (for instance to paint a mass of silky fur).
To admire the original massive works, which can cover whole gallery walls, viewers would need to stand several metres back. Ford aides the viewer with some sharp linework, a technique has a secondary benefit of allowing the works to reproduce wonderfully well in book format. Pancha Tantra includes a nice mix of cropped close-ups bled to the edge of the page - allowing us to study the overlay of wash and brushstrokes, with long shots of whole works - at a size where we can still appreciate the fine detail. On my count this book displays 72 artworks on single pages and a further 41 spread across double pages. In addition there are 43 pages with crops of interesting details, plus 17 double pages devoted to cropped highlights. Some artworks have several pages devoted to them, including the wide shot and multiple close-ups.
The background washes on Ford's paintings include mock mould spotting and branching mildew, to make the paintings look ambiguously like nineteenth century prints. At first glimpse the effect is deceptive. But these artworks are far more lively than conventional stiff animal portraits. And the wit and allegory packed into some of the works can make the viewer do a double-take. While these images are show beautiful beasts and colourful fauna, the situations depicted include some moments of drama and visceral brutality.
The only disappointment to this book is the absence of any chapter on Ford's working methods or career story. There is only a two page basic `Biography' that includes a chronology of exhibitions, awards and references to previous media stories on the artist. Perhaps the Collector's Edition with its additional 34 pages has a more rounded biographical treatment? Maybe I'll have to save for it and find out!
This book provides a marvellous folio of artworks to the mass market and does this at an agreeable price. Many of the main competitors to Taschen would have charged at least twice this price for a book this scale. The post-release price won't last and shouldn't last, it is too good to be true for a book of this size and quality. This is an abridged version of my full review on Art Book News at blogspot.
Book specs: Hardcover 320 pages, 15 x 11.4 inches, 173 colour illustrations (across 231 pages) Gorgeous, substantial book I received this as a gift, (they knew I wanted it)
I love it!
you can get lost in the beautiful, intricate paintings. The size of the book is large- it's substantial and the reproductions are gorgeous.
Like Audubon on acid. (a compliment) |  |
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