Walton Ford. Pancha Tantra

Lions, tigers, and bears: Walton Ford’s large-scale, highly detailed watercolors of animals are anthropomorphic, allegorical narratives, rich in symbols, suggestions, and hidden meaning. This glorious Baby SUMO Collector’s Edition of his oeuvre is finished with a sumptuous calf-leather cover and gold embossing and packaged in a clamshell box covered in Luxor book cloth. At first glance, Walton Ford’s large-scale, highly-detailed watercolors of animals may recall the prints of 19th-century illustrators John James Audubon and Edward Lear, and others of the colonial era. But a closer look reveals a complex and disturbingly anthropomorphic universe, full of symbols, sly jokes, and allusions to the “operatic” nature of traditional natural history themes. The beasts and birds populating this contemporary artist’s life-size paintings are never mere objects, but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot in its claw; a troupe of monkeys wreak havoc on a formal dinner table, an American buffalo is surrounded by bloodied white wolves. The book’s title derives from The Pancha Tantra, an ancient Indian book of animal tales considered the precursor to Aesop’s Fables. Limited Collector’s Edition of 1,500 numbered copies, each signed by Walton Ford.