Rhyndacus (2014) By Walton Ford (All Photos By Gail)

Paul Kasmin Gallery’s Tenth Avenue space is currently hosting Watercolors, an exhibit of new paintings by Walton Ford. For Watercolors, Ford continues to explore the visual and narrative scope of traditional natural history painting with his monumental watercolors, chronicling encounters between human culture and the natural world.

The Tigress (2013)

Several pieces in this exhibition expand upon Ford’s longstanding practice of incorporating written marginalia in his work, and feature for the first time musings penned by the artist from the perspective of his animal subjects.

Bosse-de-Nage 1898 – “HA HA!” (2014)

As in his previous work, Ford draws upon his ongoing natural history research, mining literary sources, folklore and historical anecdotes for inspiration and imagery. The painting Rhyndacus (2014) is derived from an account in Aelian’s De Natura Animalium. This ancient Roman miscellany of the natural world briefly mentions an impossibly large, sixty-foot serpent inhabiting Phrygia (present day Turkey) that was said to magically lure prey into its open maw. The artist has vividly realized the imaginary snake in a strikingly detailed portrait towering nearly 10 feet tall. By depicting native Turkish flora and fauna, Ford conjures a monstrously majestic Ancient Roman vision of the East.

The Graf Zeppelin (2014)

In another work, The Graf Zeppelin (2014), Ford engages the story of Susie, the first female gorilla brought to the United States. She arrived in New York in 1929, having crossed the Atlantic in a first class cabin aboard the German airship. Ford depicts Susie mid-flight and has written marginalia from her point of view, carefully channeling her observations and state of mind.

Windsor, May 1829 (2014)

A third recent work, Windsor, May 1829 (2014), focuses on a formidable mandrill named “Happy Jerry” who lived in Edward Cross’s menagerie in London during the early nineteenth century. In his 1870 book Heads and Tales, Adam White describes Happy Jerry sitting at table, drinking port, smoking a clay pipe and dining with King George IV. Ford, again through meticulous research, recreates this unusual luncheon at Windsor. As he did with Susie, Ford incorporates Happy Jerry’s postprandial thoughts and sensations in the watercolor, writing from the primate’s point of view.

Because the paintings are behind glass, and owing to the natural light coming into the gallery from the street, capturing glare-free imagery in a photograph is quite challenging. So, let me just add that my photos do not do the works adequate justice and it is best to see them for yourself.

Walton Ford’s Watercolors will be on Exhibit through June 21st, 2014 at Paul Kasmin Gallery, Locted on the corner of Tenth Avenue and West 27th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District.