A troop of monkeys celebrate a feast, a panther wanders across a snowy Alpine landscape and a pack of white wolves surround a buffalo dripping blood in a manicured French garden. At first glance Walton Ford’s large-scale animal watercolour paintings evoke prints by French and British colonial-era illustrators from the 19th century. After closer examination however, they reveal a pictorial universe of complex and disturbing allusions. The various tigers, lions, birds and primates that populate the life-size pictures appear as vivacious protagonists locked in allegorical struggles. The resulting combination of historical fact, natural history inquiry and surreal imaginings give rise to Walton Ford’s brilliant ‘Bestiarium’.
Walton Ford – Bestiarium
January 23rd – May 24th 2010
Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart
Invalidenstraße 50 – 51, Berlin
http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/