Walton Ford imbues King Kong with strong emotions in current exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Paul Kasmin Gallery
293 Tenth Ave. at 27th St.
Tuesday – Saturday through December 23, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-563-4474
www.paulkasmingallery.com
When King Kong is brought to New York City and put onstage in the original 1933 film, Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) says to Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), “I don’t like to look at him, Jack. It makes me think of that awful day on the island.” Walton Ford uses that line as a jumping-off point, as well as the title, for his latest exhibition, continuing at Paul Kasmin Gallery through December 23. In the first room of the 293 Tenth Ave. space, a trio of large-scale watercolors breathes powerful emotion into the beast, as he goes from worried (“I don’t like to look at him, Jack”) to angry (“It makes me think of that awful day”) to sad (“On the Island”). Measuring nine feet high and twelve feet wide, the three works focus in on King Kong’s expressive face, presenting him with humanist qualities that dominate the room. “These paintings are about Kong’s heartbreak,” Ford explains in the press release. “I wanted to reveal the monster’s grief, his enormous sadness, the sorrow that the original Kong kept hidden from view.” In the back gallery, Ford references an excerpt from John James Audubon’s memoirs, in which the ornithologist relates a dark tale of having witnessed one of his mother’s monkeys kill “Pretty Polly,” to create six natural-history-style paintings that detail smaller monkeys terrorizing beautiful parrots, including “Unnatural Composure,” in which a bird’s head has just been ripped off and held out to be admired. “The sensations of my infant heart at this cruel sight were agony to me,” Audubon writes. Thus, Ford, who was born in Larchmont and lives and works in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, has infused the paintings of Kong, a fictional character, with deep emotion, while the smaller watercolors of the monkeys and birds, inspired by actual events, are much colder, as if taken from a textbook, and they require extra attention to pick up on some of their more gruesome aspects, free of “enormous sadness.”
Prepare to have your spirits lifted up and away in this sensational animated feature from Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki. Ten-year-old Chihiro is unhappy about moving to a new home despite her parents’ best efforts to convince her otherwise. When her father takes a wrong turn on the road, the family ends up in an oddly deserted village that Chihiro soon finds out is a lot more than it seems. Chihiro’s adventures through this dreamlike, surreal, magical place filled with bizarre characters and evil beings are unforgettable, with nuances and references from such diverse works as The Wizard Of Oz and The Seventh Seal. The sheer visual beauty of the animation is staggering; many of the backgrounds are reminiscent of Impressionism. Joe Hisaishi’s maudlin music is way overpraised, as usual, but this Japanese box-office champ deservedly won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and was named Best Asian Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards. As with the best animated films, you don’t have to be a kid to fall in love with Spirited Away, which is screening in a new 35mm print December 17 to January 11 as part of the series “Castles in the Sky: Miyazaki, Takahata & the Masters of Studio Ghibli,” a dual presentation of the IFC Center and GKIDS’ New York International Children’s Film Festival. The dubbed version, featuring the voices of Daveigh Chase (Chihiro), Jason Marsden (Haku), Susan Egan (Lin), Michael Chiklis (Chihiro’s father), Lauren Holly (Chihiro’s mother), Suzanne Pleshette (Yubaba and Zeniba), John Ratzenberger (assistant manager), David Ogden Stiers (Kamaji), and Tara Strong (baby Boh), will be shown at all morning and afternoon screenings; the original Japanese version with English subtitles will be shown 6:00 and later.
The final installment in his self-described Loser Trilogy (following Drifting Clouds and 