Gordon Onslow Ford
Encyclopedia
Gordon Onslow Ford was one of the last surviving members of the 1930s Paris surrealist group surrounding André Breton
.
Born in England in 1912 to a family of artists, Gordon Onslow Ford began painting at an early age. His grandfather, Edward Onslow Ford
, was a renowned Victorian sculptor. At the age of 11, he began painting landscapes under the guidance of his uncle. Following the death of his father at age 14, he was sent to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. The ocean affected him deeply and his early works depicted ocean scenes. The metaphor of taking a "voyage" later became an important aspect of his paintings.
for a short time. He continued visiting Léger, bringing his work to him often for critique.
Soon he met the Chilean architect Roberto Matta
. Matta, who was working with le Corbusier
, was an accomplished draftsman and was making small drawings on the side. Onslow Ford, with his keen sense of seeing, admired Matta's drawings as "the most exciting images" he had seen in Paris. He encouraged Matta to continue with his drawings, which eventually inspired Matta to shift his direction from architecture to painting.
Onslow Ford and Matta became close friends, meeting and traveling frequently. They developed an ongoing dialogue about their ideas on art and metaphysics. They were also inspired by the 1937 exhibit of Mathematical Objects in Paris in which one aspect of the Mathematical Object was visible while another aspect was left to the imagination of the viewer.
In 1938, André Breton invited Onslow Ford to join the Surrealist group in Paris and attend their meetings in Café deux Magots. Onslow Ford then became friends with Pierre Mabille, André Breton, Yves Tanguy
, Esteban Frances, Wolfgang Paalen
, Max Ernst
and Victor Brauner
among others. His love of painting also led him to collect paintings and frequently visit the studios of Picasso, Miró
, de Chirico and André Masson
.
In the summer of 1939, Onslow Ford rented a chateau at Chemilleu near the border of Switzerland, and invited several of his friends to stay for a couple of months. Among the friends were André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba
, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, Esteban Frances and Kay Sage
. They spent the summer painting, exchanging ideas and reading poetry. They were visited regularly by their friend and neighbor Gertrude Stein
.
, Robert Motherwell
and others who would go on to create Abstract Expressionism
.
and Esteban Frances who were all living there.
For six years (1941-1947) Onslow Ford and Johnson lived in Erongaricuaro
, a remote village populated by the Tarascan Indians and located on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro. While living there, they created, studied, and learned the native way of living and participated in some native ceremonies. They stayed in constant connection with Wolfgang Paalen with Johnson assisting Paalen in editing his journal DYN
as well as contributing writings for the journal. During their stay they were also visited by many Surrealist friends including Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, Remedios Varo, Esteban Frances, Eva Sulzer, Alice Rahon
, William Fett, Pierre Mabille, Benjamin Péret
and the poet César Moro
.
While living in San Francisco, Onslow Ford met the Greek poet Jean Varda
and together they acquired the ferryboat, Vallejo
, which they docked in Sausalito and converted into their studios. For many years the ferryboat was an inspiring haven for painters and artists and became a small cultural center on the waterfront. In 1951, Onslow Ford with his friends Wolfgang Paalen, Lee Mullican
and Jacqueline Johnson created an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art called Dynaton.
In the early 50's Onslow Ford was introduced to Asian philosophy and studied Hinduism with Haridas Chaudhuri and Buddhist scholar Alan Watts
at the newly-formed Asian Academy (now called the California Institute of Integral Studies) in San Francisco. Around this time he also met the venerable Zen master Hodo Tobase of the Soto Zen sect and began studying Chinese Calligraphy (1952-57). This entrance into Asian thought and practice had a profound influence on his paintings. Buddhist teachings of the Void and Emptiness as well as the practice of calligraphy initiated him into an exploration of the depths of the Mind and its images.
In 1989, he met Fariba Bogzaran, an artist, lucid dream researcher and faculty member at John F. Kennedy University. They began a series of dialogues on arts and consciousness. In her research, Bogzaran found a connection between Onslow Ford's paintings, lucid dreaming and meditation. Onslow Ford collaborated with her on several of his books including Insights (1991), Ecomorphology (1994) and Once Upon a Time (1999).
In 1998, Onslow Ford, Bogzaran and Robert Anthoine co-founded the non-profit organization,Lucid Art Foundation in order to explore the relationship between art, consciousness and nature through art exhibitions, publications and seminars for artists.
In the past decade, Onslow Ford has had several retrospectives and solo exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Chile and Spain. In 1996, he inaugurated the John F. Kennedy University Arts and Consciousness Gallery and M.F.A. program in Berkeley, California and received an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts from the University in 1997. His paintings are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Britain, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Gordon Onslow Ford died peacefully in his home on 9 November 2003. He was 90. The Lucid Art Foundation continues to support his legacy and vision which explores the depths of the inner worlds in art.
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
.
Born in England in 1912 to a family of artists, Gordon Onslow Ford began painting at an early age. His grandfather, Edward Onslow Ford
Edward Onslow Ford
Edward Onslow Ford , English sculptor, was born in London. He received some education as a painter in Antwerp and as a sculptor in Munich under Professor Wagmuller, but was mainly self-taught....
, was a renowned Victorian sculptor. At the age of 11, he began painting landscapes under the guidance of his uncle. Following the death of his father at age 14, he was sent to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. The ocean affected him deeply and his early works depicted ocean scenes. The metaphor of taking a "voyage" later became an important aspect of his paintings.
Paris
While in the Navy, Onslow Ford visited Paris several times. In 1937, he resigned as a naval officer and moved to Paris to pursue painting full-time. He studied with André L’hote for five weeks and studied with Fernand LégerFernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
for a short time. He continued visiting Léger, bringing his work to him often for critique.
Soon he met the Chilean architect Roberto Matta
Roberto Matta
Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren , better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art....
. Matta, who was working with le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
, was an accomplished draftsman and was making small drawings on the side. Onslow Ford, with his keen sense of seeing, admired Matta's drawings as "the most exciting images" he had seen in Paris. He encouraged Matta to continue with his drawings, which eventually inspired Matta to shift his direction from architecture to painting.
Onslow Ford and Matta became close friends, meeting and traveling frequently. They developed an ongoing dialogue about their ideas on art and metaphysics. They were also inspired by the 1937 exhibit of Mathematical Objects in Paris in which one aspect of the Mathematical Object was visible while another aspect was left to the imagination of the viewer.
In 1938, André Breton invited Onslow Ford to join the Surrealist group in Paris and attend their meetings in Café deux Magots. Onslow Ford then became friends with Pierre Mabille, André Breton, Yves Tanguy
Yves Tanguy
Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy , known as Yves Tanguy, was a French surrealist painter.-Biography:Tanguy was born in Paris, France, the son of a retired navy captain. His parents were both of Breton origin...
, Esteban Frances, Wolfgang Paalen
Wolfgang Paalen
Wolfgang Paalen was an Austrian-Mexican painter and theorist.-Early life:Wolfgang Paalen was born in Vienna in 1905, as the first of four sons of the Austrian-Jewish merchant and inventor Gustav Robert Paalen, and his German wife, the actress Clothilde Emilie Gunkel...
, Max Ernst
Max Ernst
Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
and Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
among others. His love of painting also led him to collect paintings and frequently visit the studios of Picasso, Miró
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
, de Chirico and André Masson
André Masson
André-Aimé-René Masson was a French artist.-Biography:Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but was brought up in Belgium. He began his study of art at the age of eleven in Brussels, at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Constant Montald, and later he studied in Paris...
.
In the summer of 1939, Onslow Ford rented a chateau at Chemilleu near the border of Switzerland, and invited several of his friends to stay for a couple of months. Among the friends were André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba
Jacqueline Lamba
Jacqueline Lamba Breton was a French painter perhaps best known as the second wife of André Breton and "the subject of many of his poems". With Breton she had a daughter, Aube Elléouët Breton. She and Breton separated in 1943...
, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, Esteban Frances and Kay Sage
Kay Sage
Katherine Linn Sage , usually known as Kay Sage, was an American Surrealist artist and poet.-Biography:...
. They spent the summer painting, exchanging ideas and reading poetry. They were visited regularly by their friend and neighbor Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
.
New York
At the outset of World War II, the Society for the Preservation of European Culture invited Onslow Ford to join the Surrealists in New York. Onslow Ford, one of the few Surrealists who was an English speaker, was invited to give a series of lectures at the New School for Social Research and organized four important Surrealist shows in 1941. Those lectures and exhibitions are said to have influenced artists such as Jackson PollockJackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
, Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell American painter, printmaker and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School , which also included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston....
and others who would go on to create Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
.
Mexico
Onslow Ford met the American writer Jacqueline Johnson at his lectures in New York and they married in 1941. That same year, they moved to Mexico where he had previously visited his Surrealist friends Wolfgang Paalen, Remedios VaroRemedios Varo
Remedios Varo Uranga was a Spanish-Mexican, para-surrealist painter and anarchist. She was born María de los Remedios Varo Uranga in Anglès, Girona, Spain in 1908. During the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris where she was greatly influenced by the surrealist movement...
and Esteban Frances who were all living there.
For six years (1941-1947) Onslow Ford and Johnson lived in Erongaricuaro
Erongarícuaro
Erongarícuaro, which means "Place of waiting" in the Purepecha language, is a town in the Mexican state of Michoacán. It is located about an hour and a half drive to Morelia or Uruapan and just 20 minutes from the famous colonial town of Pátzcuaro...
, a remote village populated by the Tarascan Indians and located on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro. While living there, they created, studied, and learned the native way of living and participated in some native ceremonies. They stayed in constant connection with Wolfgang Paalen with Johnson assisting Paalen in editing his journal DYN
Dyn
Dyn or DYN may refer to:* DYN * Dyne, unit of force* DynDNS...
as well as contributing writings for the journal. During their stay they were also visited by many Surrealist friends including Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, Remedios Varo, Esteban Frances, Eva Sulzer, Alice Rahon
Alice Rahon
Alice Rahon was a French Surrealist painter and writer.- Life :Alice Rahon was born in the village Chenecey-Buillon in the French Franche-Comté region. In 1931 she met the Austrian painter Wolfgang Paalen whom she married later. She was inspired by his Surrealist poetry...
, William Fett, Pierre Mabille, Benjamin Péret
Benjamin Péret
Benjamin Péret was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism.-Biography:...
and the poet César Moro
César Moro
César Moro is the pseudonym of Alfredo Quíspez Asín a Peruvian born poet and painter. He travelled to Paris in 1925 and most of his poetic works are written in French.-External links:* *...
.
San Francisco
In 1947, Onslow Ford and Johnson moved to California, choosing the San Francisco Bay Area as the fertile soil where their new ideas would have a chance to grow. While in San Francisco he was invited to give a retrospective show at the San Francisco Museum of Art (1948). The title of the exhibit and the catalogue, Towards a New Subject in Painting, spoke to the fact that he was moving in a new direction in his art.While living in San Francisco, Onslow Ford met the Greek poet Jean Varda
Jean Varda
Jean Varda was an artist. He was of mixed Greek and French descent...
and together they acquired the ferryboat, Vallejo
Vallejo (ferry)
The Vallejo, originally known as the O&CRR Ferry No. 2, is a houseboat in Sausalito, California, United States. It previously served as a passenger ferry in Portland, Oregon, in the late 19th century, and in Vallejo, California, for the first half of the 20th century.The Oregon & California...
, which they docked in Sausalito and converted into their studios. For many years the ferryboat was an inspiring haven for painters and artists and became a small cultural center on the waterfront. In 1951, Onslow Ford with his friends Wolfgang Paalen, Lee Mullican
Lee Mullican
Lee Mullican was a painter and art teacher, and an influential member of the Dynaton Movement. He was a member of the UCLA art faculty from 1962 to 1990. He married Luchita Hurtado; their son Matt Mullican is a New York City based artist; their son John Mullican is a Los Angeles based writer and...
and Jacqueline Johnson created an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art called Dynaton.
In the early 50's Onslow Ford was introduced to Asian philosophy and studied Hinduism with Haridas Chaudhuri and Buddhist scholar Alan Watts
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York...
at the newly-formed Asian Academy (now called the California Institute of Integral Studies) in San Francisco. Around this time he also met the venerable Zen master Hodo Tobase of the Soto Zen sect and began studying Chinese Calligraphy (1952-57). This entrance into Asian thought and practice had a profound influence on his paintings. Buddhist teachings of the Void and Emptiness as well as the practice of calligraphy initiated him into an exploration of the depths of the Mind and its images.
Inverness
In 1957, Onslow Ford and Johnson acquired a large body of virgin woodlands in the hills of Inverness, California. Ten years later they gave the majority of the land to the Nature Conservancy for the sake of preserving the land. At this time, Onslow Ford began writing and in 1964 he published his first book entitled Painting in the Instant. Johnson died in 1976 as he was working on his second book, Creation, which was published in 1978. In 1977, he had a major retrospective of his work at the Oakland Museum of California. After this, he assumed a more solitary life, focusing more deeply on his painting.In 1989, he met Fariba Bogzaran, an artist, lucid dream researcher and faculty member at John F. Kennedy University. They began a series of dialogues on arts and consciousness. In her research, Bogzaran found a connection between Onslow Ford's paintings, lucid dreaming and meditation. Onslow Ford collaborated with her on several of his books including Insights (1991), Ecomorphology (1994) and Once Upon a Time (1999).
In 1998, Onslow Ford, Bogzaran and Robert Anthoine co-founded the non-profit organization,Lucid Art Foundation in order to explore the relationship between art, consciousness and nature through art exhibitions, publications and seminars for artists.
In the past decade, Onslow Ford has had several retrospectives and solo exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Chile and Spain. In 1996, he inaugurated the John F. Kennedy University Arts and Consciousness Gallery and M.F.A. program in Berkeley, California and received an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts from the University in 1997. His paintings are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Britain, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Gordon Onslow Ford died peacefully in his home on 9 November 2003. He was 90. The Lucid Art Foundation continues to support his legacy and vision which explores the depths of the inner worlds in art.