Ford Beckmanis a contemporary artist, born inColumbus, Ohio in 1952.Beckman’s work has been exhibited internationally and is included insuch notable public collections as Panza Collection, Italy; SaatchiCollection, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; SanFrancisco Museum of Modern Art; Israeli Museum,Jerusalem; EsslCollection, Vienna; the Denver Art Museum and the Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art, New York.
Beckman started his career out of college working in the Fashion industry. He successfully started and developed fashion lines that eventually brought him from Tulsa, OK where he was living and working in the late 70s, early 80s, to New York, working with international greats. His interest in painting began at a young age, even expressing interest in the craft in his college days, but it wasn’t until the mid 80s that he began to truly explore this gift.
For the past two decades Beckman has approach his works with duality – creating minimal “Black Wall Paintings” and explosive “Pop Paintings”. He truly captures the purpose of the work and its the essence, much like his personal heroes easily identified once you’ve seen the pieces -Malevich,Pollock, Johns or Warhol.
The current show atMaloney Fine Art,“Pop Targets”is, according to Maloney, “an ongoing investigation of the hybridization ofminimal and pop aesthetics. Simultaneously mechanical and gestural,explosive and contemplative, Ford’sNeo-Suprematist/Neo-Spiritual/Neo-Pop paintings expand and continue amodernist discourse.”
In his “Targets” you find his need to rethink and rework – the application of reprise and revision to articulate the iconic. He has re-identified the simplicity of this symbol and created supple, bold interpretations of it in his use of color and industrial materials. But it’s not just a study of icons, or a modernist painting approach that creates the identity of this body of work.
“Beckman’s painting is a response to the spiritual crisis ofmodernity. With Beckman, painting renews its spiritual intention,becomes a spiritual sanctuary, achieves, once again, aspiritual aura,if in a very different, indeed worsening spiritual climate.”Donald Kuspit
Make use of the next two weeks that Ford Beckman’s “Pop Targets” will be on display in Culver City.
Maloney Fine Art
2680 South La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
