Walton Ford

Some of my contemporaries are just interested in talking about fashion or pornography. You have an American Apparel-style theory of making art, and I couldn’t be more bored with that. But that seems to be all that some painters seem to be interested in now.

And I think, “God, you know, look at what’s happening in the world. Is that your preoccupation: Celebrity, glamour and pornography? Is that really what we’re going to go down in flames celebrating?” - Walton Ford

Finally I see something about a show I've been wanting to post about! The Walton Ford interview at Artinfo is a decent intro into one of the most intelligent artists working right now. I was very much impressed and challenged by his current exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.

For all the blagghing about Ron Mueck, this exhibit seems to have been overlooked - its superior to Mueck's I think. Why? Because it's really about something urgent - not that Mueck's show isn't good because it is - but Ford is on to some major topics (human culture/natural history) without being topical. Stylistically he has embarked on an incredible tightrope -he's pushing a very familiar (cliche) form of drawing into a conceptual and political arena without relying on tiresome irony. How these do not become political cartoons is stunning. The poetic dimension achieved here is far too often missing in works that aim for political coverage or toy with allegory. Quite simply, there is a hell of a lot payoff for the viewer!