Paul Kasmin

November 28, 2011, 8:15am

Walton Ford: Primal Instincts and Pop Culture

Walton Ford's reputation for enormous (specifically life-sized) watercolors of animals executed in the highly illustrative, realistic vein of ornithologist-artist John James Audubon precedes him. I have expectations when approaching a new Ford exhibition: the works will be large; they will be fully realized; and there will exist some disarray, some violence that offsets the animals' handsome portraiture. I've followed Ford's work since 2005 and have seen his deft folding of dissent beneath a naturalistic veil, like Le Jardin's rugged bison fighting off a pack of chicly groomed wolves on a manicured garden.