Gordon Onslow Ford facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Gordon Onslow Ford
Born	26 December 1912 Wendover, England
Died	9 November 2003 Inverness, California
Known for	Painter
Spouse(s)	Jacqueline Johnson

Gordon Onslow Ford (born December 26, 1912 – died November 9, 2003) was a famous painter. He was one of the last artists from the 1930s surrealist group in Paris. This group was led by André Breton.

Gordon Onslow Ford was born in Wendover, England, into a family of artists. He started painting when he was very young. His grandfather, Edward Onslow Ford, was a well-known sculptor. When Gordon was 11, his uncle taught him how to paint landscapes. After his father passed away at age 14, he went to the Royal Naval College. The ocean greatly influenced him, and his early paintings showed ocean scenes. Later, the idea of a "voyage" became important in his art.

Life in Paris

While in the Navy, Onslow Ford visited Paris many times. In 1937, he left the Navy to become a full-time painter in Paris. He studied art with André L’hote and Fernand Léger. He often showed his work to Léger for advice.

Soon, he met Roberto Matta, an architect from Chile. Matta was also a talented artist who made small drawings. Onslow Ford thought Matta's drawings were "the most exciting images" he had seen. He encouraged Matta to keep drawing, which led Matta to become a painter instead of an architect.

Onslow Ford and Matta became close friends. They often met and traveled together. They talked a lot about their ideas on art and life. They were also inspired by a 1937 art show in Paris. This show featured "Mathematical Objects" where part of the object was visible, and the rest was left to the viewer's imagination.

In 1938, André Breton invited Onslow Ford to join the surrealist group in Paris. They met at Café deux Magots. Onslow Ford became friends with many artists, including Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, and Victor Brauner. He also loved collecting paintings and often visited the studios of famous artists like Picasso and Miró.

In the summer of 1939, Onslow Ford rented a large house near the border of Switzerland. He invited several friends to stay for a few months. These friends included André Breton, Yves Tanguy, and Roberto Matta. They spent the summer painting, sharing ideas, and reading poetry. Their friend and neighbor, Gertrude Stein, often visited them.

Moving to New York City

When World War II began, Onslow Ford was asked to join the surrealists in New York. He was one of the few surrealists who spoke English. He gave many lectures at the New School for Social Research. He also organized four important surrealist art shows in 1941. These lectures and shows are believed to have influenced American artists like Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell. These artists later created a style called Abstract Expressionism.

Time in Mexico

Onslow Ford met American writer Jacqueline Johnson at his lectures in New York. They got married in 1941. That same year, they moved to Mexico. He had visited Mexico before and knew other surrealist friends living there, like Wolfgang Paalen and Remedios Varo.

For six years (1941–1947), Onslow Ford and Johnson lived in Erongaricuaro. This was a quiet village by Lake Patzcuaro, home to the Purépecha Indians. While living there, they created art, studied, and learned about the local way of life. Jacqueline Johnson also helped Wolfgang Paalen edit his art journal, DYN. Many surrealist friends visited them, including Roberto Matta and Benjamin Péret.

Life in San Francisco

In 1947, Onslow Ford and Johnson moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in California. They felt it was a good place for their new ideas to grow. In San Francisco, he had a special art show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1948. The show was called Towards a New Subject in Painting. This title showed that his art was moving in a new direction.

While in San Francisco, Onslow Ford met the Greek poet Jean Varda. Together, they bought an old ferryboat called Vallejo. They docked it in Sausalito and turned it into their art studios. For many years, the ferryboat was a creative place for painters and artists. It became a small cultural center on the waterfront. In 1951, Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Lee Mullican, and Jacqueline Johnson created an art show called Dynaton at the San Francisco Museum of Art.

In the early 1950s, Onslow Ford started learning about Asian philosophy. He studied Hinduism and Buddhism. He also met a Zen master and began studying Chinese calligraphy (1952–57). These studies deeply influenced his paintings. Buddhist ideas about "the Void" and "Emptiness," along with calligraphy, helped him explore the deeper parts of the mind and its images.

Moving to Inverness

In 1957, Onslow Ford and Johnson bought a large area of untouched forest in Inverness, California. Ten years later, they gave most of this land to the Nature Conservancy to protect it. Around this time, Onslow Ford started writing. In 1964, he published his first book, Painting in the Instant. Jacqueline Johnson passed away in 1976 while he was working on his second book, Creation, which came out in 1978. In 1977, he had a major show of his work at the Oakland Museum of California. After this, he lived a more private life, focusing deeply on his painting.

In 1989, he met Fariba Bogzaran, an artist and researcher of lucid dreams. They began talking about art and consciousness. Bogzaran found links between Onslow Ford's paintings, lucid dreaming, and meditation. Onslow Ford worked with her on several books, including Insights (1991) and Once Upon a Time (1999).

In 1998, Onslow Ford, Bogzaran, and Robert Anthoine started the Lucid Art Foundation. This group explores how art, consciousness, and nature are connected. They do this through art shows, books, and workshops for artists.

Art Shows and Legacy

In the 1990s, Onslow Ford had many art shows in the United States, Germany, Chile, and Spain. In 1996, he opened the John F. Kennedy University Arts and Consciousness Gallery. He also received an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts from the university in 1997. His paintings are in important museums like the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Tate Britain. In 2010, a show of his paintings from 1939-1951 was held in New York.

Gordon Onslow Ford passed away peacefully at his home on November 9, 2003, at the age of 90. He left his artistic legacy to the Lucid Art Foundation.

See also

In Spanish: Gordon Onslow Ford para niños