Gordon Oslow Ford

Gordon Max Onslow Ford Trustn Inverness, Californie

The board is sound. There is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

signed 'GOF' and dated 2'0.1.47' (upper left), oil on board. Painted in 1947.

Fig. 1, Portrait de Roberto Matta, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Esteban Francès à Chemilieu, vers 1939.

Né en Angleterre en 1912 dans une famille d'artistes, très jeune encore, Gordon Onslow Ford commence à peindre des paysages et des marines. Alors qu'il s'est installé à Paris pour se consacrer à la peinture, André Breton l'invite à se joindre aux surréalistes. Il participe alors aux rendez-vous surréalistes du café des Deux Magots où il fait la connaissance d'Yves Tanguy, Esteban Francés, Wolfgang Paalen, Victor Brauner et Pierre Mabille. Souvent, il se rend dans l'atelier de Picasso, de Miro et de Giorgio de Chirico.

A l'instar de nombreux surréalistes qui ont fui l'Europe durant la guerre, Gordon Onslow Ford quitte la France pour se joindre, à l'invitation de la Société pour la Préservation de la Culture Européenne, aux Surréalistes de New York. En 1941, avec sa femme, Jacqueline Johnson, et leurs amis surréalistes, ils partent pour le Mexique. Dans un village isolé situé sur les bords du lac Patzacuaro et peuplé d'Indiens tarasques, Erongaricuaro, ils fondent alors une colonie surréaliste.

Installé à Mexico et explorant ce qu'il appellera plus tard 'les mondes intérieurs', Gordon Onslow Ford créé quelques uns de ses plus beaux tableaux. La simplicité de sa vie avec les Indiens tarasques et les paysages volcaniques qui l'entourent influencent profondément sa peinture. Les personnages qu'il peint se métamorphosent en figures faites de lignes et de couleurs totalement isolées du contexte complexe qu'il nomme 'la révélation'.

La Naissance de Vénus, apparaît comme la synthèse aboutie de plusieurs années de travail, les paysages intérieurs des premières années surréalistes laissant la place à un nouveau langage qui traduit la relation privilégiée de la terre, des populations locales, des voies de la création et de la connaissance. A cette époque, Onslow Ford libère la ligne de la forme et utilise les couleurs pour mettre en valeur la ligne.

 

Born in England in 1912 to a family of artists, Gordon Onslow Ford began painting land and seascapes at an early age. After moving to Paris to pursue painting full-time, he was invited by André Breton to join the Surrealists. He attended Surrealist meetings at the café Les Deux Magots, where he was introduced to Yves Tanguy, Esteban Francés, Wolfgang Paalen, Victor Brauner and Pierre Mabille, and he frequently visited the studios of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Giorgio de Chirico.

Like many of the Surrealists who fled Europe during the war, Gordon Onslow Ford left France upon invitation from the Society for the Preservation of European Culture to join the Surrealists in New York. In 1941, he and his wife, Jacqueline Johnson, moved to Mexico with their Surrealist friends where they set up a Surrealist colony in a remote village, Erongaricuaro, which was populated by the Tarascan Indians and located on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro.

Gordon Onslow Ford created many beautiful works while in Mexico, exploring what he later called "the inner worlds". The simplicity of living with the Trascan Indians and the volcanic landscape deeply influenced his paintings. The characters that he painted were transformed into figures composed of lines and colours completely separate from the complex background which he called later "revelations".  These poetic paintings are similar to a love story, depicting a journey of the painter as he moves from one internal landscape to the next.

The current work, The Birth of Venus, represents the culmination of several years of work, transforming the earlier Surrealist internal landscapes into a new language that depicts the relationship with the earth and indigenous ways of knowing. In this period Onslow Ford liberated lines from form and highlighted them through the use of colour.