Primates large and small are the focus of this, Ford’s fourth exhibition at the gallery, “I Don’t Like To Look At Him, Jack. It Makes Me Think Of That Awful Day On The Island.” The main event is a series of three epic works depicting a rendition of King Kong’s face as he moves through distinct emotions: fear, anger, and a sort of pitiful surrender. These paintings depart from the naturalist vocabulary that Ford is known for; the works feature a cinematic ape, not one that’s crawled off the pages of a biology textbook. In the context of the gallery they’re aggressive and impressive. Stand in the center of the room and you get a panorama of ape pathos, all tongue, teeth, and flared nostrils. Up close, and on a one-by-one basis, the details aren’t quite as fine; certain aspects, like the snot pouring out of Kong’s snout in the final painting, are rendered a bit cartoonishly, though perhaps that’s the point. Ford is normally known for inscribing the backgrounds and margins of his watercolors with a riot of multilingual phrases. Here, he goes easy on the verbiage: the only text on these paintings is the title of each piece and “1933,” the date the original King Kong film premiered. Seen together, in a space like this, Ford’s Kong is thrilling; one hopes that the works stay together, since they’re most effective as a triptych in-the-round.
In the next room, the artist has taken inspiration from the biography of John James Audobon, whose mother’s pet monkey killed his own pet parrot. This small anecdote is translated into a series of six paintings imagining the progression of the animal-on-animal murder, though in each Ford substitutes a different type of monkey and parrot. The paintings’ small details are wonderful, from incidental still lives of fruit and bread to detailed background landscapes. In "Unnatural Composure" (2011), a firey sun sets on the horizon while the monkey rips off the parrot’s head in a bloody frenzy. Did I mention that he’s simultaneously ejaculating? Because it must be said that Ford’s series here is a veritable catalogue of primate penises, from the tiny, pink, and tumescent to the wilted member of the final frame, which resembles a worm that’s been run over by a steamroller. (If I feel weird writing this, then Ford must have felt really weird painting it.)
The connection between these two bodies of work is tenuous, if it exists at all. But it is an excellent opportunity to witness Ford doing what he does well while also setting out in a very different direction. It’s a testament to the artist’s confidence that he’s made that latter leap in a Kong-sized fashion: all or nothing.
Walton Ford's “I Don’t Like To Look At Him, Jack. It Makes Me Think Of That Awful Day On The Island,” is on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery, 293 Tenth Avenue, New York, from November 3 to December 23, 2011.