Ford Beckman

FORD BECKMAN (Columbus, 1952-Tulsa, 2014).
"Black wall painting," 1990-1991.
Acrylic, enamel, wax and industrial varnish on canvas.
Exhibitions: 2009 (March 26-May 17), "Private Life. Representations of contemporary tragedy and banality", MUBAG, Alicante.
Bibliography: "La vida Privada. Representations of contemporary tragedy and banality", Ed. MUBAG, Alicante 2009, p. 83.
Measurements: 200 x 205 cm.

The first thing that comes to mind when contemplating this painting is Malevich's "Black square on white". Malevich believed that art should not imitate the real world, but create its own reality. The black square has been read in an infinite number of ways in the course of art history: as an idea of infinity, as nothingness or emptiness in the Eastern sense, as pure energy, or as the impossibility of representation. Ford Beckman takes up the reflection on the nature of art and the limits of representation, but introduces a particular twist. In "Black wall painting", technical experimentation is evident in the unusual combination of materials (acrylic, enamel, wax and industrial varnish), resulting in a work that, although in dialogue with the Suprematist tradition and its derivatives (hard-edge painting, geometric abstraction), does not seek to conceal the brushstroke or hide the human trace, but on the contrary emphasizes the importance of the support and gives the drips and imperfections an aesthetic patina.

Having initially trained in the field of advertising and fashion, Ford Beckman developed a pictorial work free from pre-established precepts of what contemporary artistic practice is supposed to be. This allowed him to explore abstraction with complete freedom, but also to delve into the exploration of an unconventional figuration.

Ford Beckman was a successful fashion designer in New York in the 1980s before devoting himself entirely to the fine arts in the 1990s, especially painting. In the late 1980s, Beckman moved into a Manhattan studio and held his first solo exhibition in New York in 1988. In 1992, Beckman opened his first solo show in Europe at the Hans Mayer Gallery in Düsseldorf. Ford Beckman's works were acquired in Europe by collector Giuseppe Panza and the Essl Collection, among others. Beckman was a friend of Cy Twombly. His was a blazing career. Beckman moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he died at the age of 62. Solo exhibitions (selection): 1990: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York; 1992: Hans Mayer Gallery, Düsseldorf; 1996: Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover.