Though the tiger in this prep study for Walton Ford’s painting Chay, now on view in his solo show at Gagosian Gallery, looks ferocious, it represents an animal that is injured and seconds away from finding relief. Tragic misunderstandings or false assumptions about animals throughout history inform Ford’s large watercolor, gouache and ink drawings. In the finished painting (also included in the show), a tiger leaps into a pool of water, ropes trailing from his body in a reenactment from a Vietnamese folk tale about how a farmer’s trickery results in the tiger’s stripes. (On view in Chelsea through April 23rd).
Walton Ford, Tiger Study for Chay, watercolor, pen and ink on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2022.
Merrily Kerr is an art critic and writer based in New York. For more than 20 years, Merrily has published in international art magazines including Time Out New York, Art on Paper, Flash Art, Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, and Tema Celeste in addition to writing catalogue essays and guest lecturing. Merrily teaches art appreciation at Marymount Manhattan College and has taught for Cooper Union Continuing Education.
For more than a decade Merrily has crafted personalized tours of cultural discovery in New York's galleries and museums for individuals and groups, including corporate tours, collectors, artists, advertising agencies, and student groups from Texas Woman's University, Parsons School of Design, Chicago's Moody Institute, Cooper Union Continuing Education, Hunter College Continuing Education and other institutions. Merrily's tours have been featured in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Sydney Morning Herald and Philadelphia Magazine.
Merrily is licensed by New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs as a tour guide and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA USA)
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