Gordon Onslow Ford British, 1912-2003

  • Overview
    Gordon Onslow Ford, Erongarícuaro, Mexico, 1946 ©Gordon Onslow Ford Archive, Lucid Art Foundation
    Gordon Onslow Ford, Erongarícuaro, Mexico, 1946 ©Gordon Onslow Ford Archive, Lucid Art Foundation

    Gordon Onslow Ford was a British painter renowned for having been the youngest member of the surrealist group invited by André Breton. His lifelong quest to explore an independent path took him from England to Paris and from New York to Mexico. In 1947 he moved to San Francisco and in 1958 he settled in Inverness (California) near San Francisco. There, he nourished his nonfigurative painting style by studying Asian philosophies and calligraphy, and by exploring the inner worlds.

  • Works
  • Exhibitions
  • Publications
  • Video
  • Biography
    Gordon Onslow Ford in his studio on the Ferryboat Vallejo, Sausalito, CA, USA, 1958 ©Gordon Onslow Ford Archive, Lucid Art Foundation
    Gordon Onslow Ford in his studio on the Ferryboat Vallejo, Sausalito, CA, USA, 1958 ©Gordon Onslow Ford Archive, Lucid Art Foundation

    FORMATIVE YEARS

    Gordon Onslow Ford was born in the English town of Wendover on 26 December 1912 to a family of artists: his grandfather Edward Onslow Ford was a sculptor, and his uncle Rudolph Onslow Ford was a landscape painter. Onslow Ford began painting at a very young age thanks to lessons from his uncle.

    Following the death of his father, a doctor in the British Army, Onslow Ford was sent to the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth to join the British Navy at the age of 14. During his training, he kept a notebook of daily reports, which included detailed technical illustrations. In an interview in 1984, he explained: “It’s a tradition in the British Navy to make watercolors”. As such, the artist managed to combine his duty to illustrate with his passion for painting.

    Onslow Ford traveled a great deal, torn between painting and his commitment to the military. It was a visit to Egypt in 1934 that enabled him to decide which path to follow. Stationed in Alexandria, he was fascinated by the town and painted many watercolors of it. It was there that he met Richard Combe Abdy (1869-1938) – a wealthy English banker based in Alexandria. Abdy had close connections to the British Navy, regularly playing host to its officers. Onslow Ford attended the events organized at Abdy’s home in Alexandria, mainly for the chance to paint in his gardens. Abdy was impressed by Onslow Ford’s talent and became his patron. He helped Onslow Ford leave the British Navy, thanks to his connections, and he organized the artist’s first exhibition in London in 1936.

     

    PARIS AND SURREALISM

    After his resignation from the British Navy was accepted in 1937, Onslow Ford moved to Paris, where he devoted himself to painting. He studied for several weeks with André Lhote and then with Fernand Léger. Soon after his arrival in the capital, he met the Chilean architect, Roberto Matta. Matta was working with Le Corbusier at the time and was already an experienced illustrator. Onslow Ford admired his drawings, which he considered “the most exciting images” he had seen in Paris. Roberto Matta and Gordon Onslow Ford quickly became very good friends. The latter encouraged Matta to pursue a career as an artist and urged him to explore painting.

    In 1938, Onslow Ford’s patron and friend Richard Combe Abdy died, leaving him a considerable fortune. After Onslow Ford’s return to Paris, he and Matta decided to spend the summer in Trévignon, Brittany, the ancestral land of their favorite surrealist painter, Yves Tanguy. There, they experimented with painting and studied esoteric philosophies. Their time in Brittany transformed their artistic practice as they shifted their focus to exploring the unconscious and surrealist automatism.

    Roberto Matta joined the surrealists first and then introduced Onslow Ford to André Breton, who invited him to join the surrealist group and attend meetings at the café Les Deux Magots. Through the surrealist group, Onslow Ford became close to the writer Pierre Mabille and the painters Yves Tanguy, Estéban Frances, Wolfgang Paalen, and Max Ernst. He also became a patron and collector, frequenting the studios of Picasso, Miró, de Chirico, and André Masson.

    Gordon Onslow Ford shared his studio with Victor Brauner. Too intimidated to paint in front of his friend, Gordon poured paint on the canvas and thus discovered automatic painting, which he named “coulage.” It was the process of pouring Ripolin paint (an oil-based enamel paint that dries quickly) directly onto the canvas and then peeling off parts of the pictorial layer to create a sense of depth.

     

    THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND EXILE IN NEW YORK

    In the summer of 1939, Onslow Ford rented a château in Chemilleu, France, in the region of Rhône-Alpes, where he invited his artist friends André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, Estéban Frances and Kay Sage. The group spent the summer painting, exchanging ideas, and reading poetry. They received regular visits from the American art collector Gertrude Stein and the writer Alice B. Toklas. The château was a veritable refuge on the eve of the Second World War.

    When war broke out, Onslow Ford was drafted back into the British Navy and left Paris for London. The Society for the Preservation of European Culture – an American organization – invited a number of surrealist artists to take refuge in New York. Matta and Kay Sage worked with this organization to secure a visa for Onslow Ford to travel to New York in the winter of 1941. One of the few English-speaking surrealist artists, Onslow Ford was invited to give four lectures at the New School for Social Research in New York City, and he organized four surrealist exhibitions in 1941. These lectures and exhibitions were to have a major influence on American artists.

    American writer Jacqueline Johnson, a friend of artist Robert Motherwell, attended the lectures and later met Onslow Ford. They married in 1941. That same year, the couple moved to Mexico and eventually settled in the village of Erongarícuaro, where they stayed for six years. At their home in Mexico, they received regular visits from their surrealist friends Wolfgang Paalen, Remedios Varo, César Moro, Sonja Sekula, Estéban Frances, and Roberto Matta.

     

    CALIFORNIA AND NON-FIGURATIVE PAINTING

    In 1947, Gordon Onslow Ford and Jacqueline Johnson moved to the United States and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In 1948, Onslow Ford was invited to present a retrospective show at the San Francisco Museum of Art entitled Towards a New Subject in Painting. A year later, Onslow Ford acquired the ferryboat Vallejo, docked in Sausalito, California. Together with the Greek painter Jean Varda (1893 – 1971), Onslow Ford converted the boat into their studios. In 1956, Matta and his wife Malitte visited Onslow Ford and his wife and stayed for almost six months. Onslow Ford shared part of his studio with him so Matta could paint while he was visiting. For many years, the ferryboat was a haven for artists, becoming a small cultural center on the waterfront.

    In the early 1950s, Gordon Onslow Ford attended lectures at the Asian Academy in San Francisco and studied Hinduism and Buddhism, which influenced his art. From 1952-1957, he studied calligraphy extensively with Japanese master Hodo Tobase Roshi. At the same time, Onslow Ford became friends with composer Harry Partch, a pioneer of minimalist music. Onslow Ford’s art practice moved into the nonfigurative style of painting, based on the elements of line, circle, and dot. Eventually, Gordon Onslow Ford sold the ferryboat to Buddhist scholar Alan Watts.

    In 1957, Gordon Onslow Ford and Jacqueline Johnson acquired a large tract of virgin forest in the hills of Inverness, California. Ten years later, they donated most of the land to an environmental organization, The Nature Conservancy, to preserve it. In 1964, Onslow Ford’s first book, Painting in the Instant, was published by Harry N. Abrams, London. Onslow Ford’s paintings from the 1960s are characterized by an extremely limited palette, entirely composed of black and white. The works from that period are the result of an exploration of the meditative state. They are representations of the artist’s inner world. Onslow Ford recruited the chemist William Parles to create a paint similar to acrylic that allowed black and white to dry at the same speed, which was not possible with oil-based paint.

    Jacqueline Johnson died in 1976 while Onslow Ford was working on his second book, Creation, which was published two years later. In 1977, he was honored with a major retrospective exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California. After this major exhibition, Onslow Ford adopted a more solitary lifestyle, devoted to painting.

     

    LUCID ART

    In 1989, Gordon Onslow Ford met Fariba Bogzaran, an artist, lucid dream researcher, and professor at John F. Kennedy University (Berkeley, California). Together they embarked on a series of dialogues on art and consciousness. In Bogzaran’s research, she discovered that some of Onslow Ford’s paintings were akin to transpersonal experiences in lucid dreaming and meditation. They collaborated on several books: Insights (1991), Ecomorphology (1993), and Once Upon a Time (1999). In 1996, Bogzaran curated Onslow Ford’s inaugural exhibition for the new Master of Fine Arts program on Arts and Consciousness at the John F. Kennedy University Gallery, Berkeley, California. The following year Onslow Ford was granted an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the university. In 1998, Gordon Onslow Ford, Fariba Bogzaran, and Robert Anthoine cofounded the Lucid Art Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to explore the relationship between art, consciousness, and nature through exhibitions, publications, artist residencies, and seminars.

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford died in Inverness, California, on 9 November 2003 at the age of 90. He left his estate to the Lucid Art Foundation (Inverness, California).

  • COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)

    Belgium

    Antwerp, University of Antwerp Museum

     

    United States

    Baltimore, MD, Baltimore Museum of Art

    Bellingham, WA, Whatcom Museum

    Berkeley, CA, Berkeley Art Museum

    Boca Raton, FL, Boca Raton Museum of Art

    Boston, MA, University of Massachusetts

    Cambridge, MA, Fogg Museum, Harvard University

    Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum

    Davis, CA, University of California

    Fort Lauderdale, FL, Fort Lauderdale Museum

    Fort Lauderdale, FL, Nova Southeastern University Art Museum

    Irvine, CA, University of California Irvine Institute and Museum of California Art

    Laguna Beach, CA, Laguna Art Museum

    Lincoln, NE, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska

    Logan, UT, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University

    Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

    Napa, CA, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art

    New York, NY, Morgan Library & Museum

    New York, NY, Museum of Modern Art

    New York, NY, Solomon Guggenheim Museum

    New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art

    Oakland, CA, Oakland Museum of California

    Pullman, WA, Museum of Art at Washington State University

    Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art

    Sacramento, CA, Crocker Art Museum

    San Francisco, CA, de Young Museum

    San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

    San Diego, CA, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

    San Jose, CA, San Jose Museum of Art

    Washington, DC, Smithsonian American Art Museum

    West Palm Beach, FL, Norton Museum of Art

     

    United Kingdom

    London, Tate Modern Museum

  • EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

    Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1938

    Salon des Indépendants, Paris, France, 1939

    Surrealism, Zwemmer Gallery, London, United Kingdom 1940

    Exposición Internacional del Surrealismo, Galeria de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico, 1940

    New School for Social Research, New York, NY, United States, 1941

    Solo exhibition, Karl Nierendorf Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 1946

    Solo exhibition, Towards a New Subject in Painting, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1948

    Dynaton, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1951

    Alexander Rabow Galleries, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1956

    Gordon Onslow Ford and Richard Bowman, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1959

    Solo exhibition, Paintings by Gordon Onslow Ford, Rose Rabow Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1960

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford, 1951-1962, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1962

    Fifty California Artists, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1962

    Some Points of View-’62, Stanford University Art Gallery and Museum, Stanford, CA, United States, 1962

    Solo exhibition, Retrospective Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolors, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1964

    Rose Rabow Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1966

    Dada, Surrealism, and their Heritage, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, United States, 1968

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford, Large Paintings, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1970

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow-Ford: A Partial Retrospective, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 1971

    Other Landscapes and Shadow Land, Visionary Painting by Ten Bay Area Artists, University of Southern California Art Galleries, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1971

    Rose Rabow Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1973

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford, Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings, 1937-1975, Pyramid Galleries, Washington, D.C, United States, 1975

    Dynaton re-viewed: a show of three painters of the Dynaton movement that was first exhibited in 1951 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art / Lee Mullican, Gordon Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1977

    California: 5 Footnotes to Modern Art History, Dynaton Revisited, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1977

    Surrealism and American Art (1931-1947), Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ, United States, 1977

    Surrealitat-Bildrealitat (1924-1974), Staalich Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany, 1977

    Solo exhibition, Retrospective Exhibition (1931-1977), Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, United States, 1977

    Solo exhibition, Création, Galerie Schreiner, Basel, Switzerland, 1978

    Drawings by Painters, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, United States, 1982

    L’Échange Surréaliste, Grand Palais, Paris, France, 1982

    Peinture Surréaliste en Angleterre 1930 – 1960, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, France, 1982

    Artistic Collaboration in the Twentieth Century, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, United States, 1984

    Surrealism: Work on Paper, Arnold Herstand and Company Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 1984

    Ceci n’est pas le surréalisme, California: Idioms of Surrealism, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1984

    Galerie Samy Kinge, Paris, France, 1985

    David Cole Gallery, Inverness, CA, United States, 1986

    The Interpretive Link: Abstract Surrealism into Abstract Expressionism, Works on Paper 1938-1948, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, United States, 1986

    Minotaure, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland, 1986

    La Planète Affolée Surréalisme, Dispersion et Influences, 1938 – 1947, Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, France, 1986

    Moderns in Mind, Artists Space, New York, NY, United States, 1986

    Visions of Inner Space: Gestural Painting in Modern American Art, Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1987

    The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1987

    Solo exhibition, Smith Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, CA, United States, 1990

    El Surrealismo Entre Viejo y Nuevo Mundo, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Canary Islands, Spain, 1990

    Anxious Visions: Surrealist Art, University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, United States, 1990

    Pursuit of the Marvelous: Stanley William Hayter, Charles Howard, Gordon Onslow Ford, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA, United States, 1990

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1991

    André Breton et le Surréalisme, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1991

    Light and Color – Dynaton Painters, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1992

    Dynaton, Before and Beyond, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, United States, 1992

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Paintings of the Inner-Worlds, Harcourts Modern and Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA, United States, 1993

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: The World of Line Circle Dot, Pavilion at the Botanical Garden, Munich, Germany, 1993

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford, Galerie Brochier, Munich, Germany, 1993

    Lateinamerika und der Surrealismus, Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 1993

    Counterpoints: American Art 1930-1945, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 1994

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: A Retrospective, Bochum Museum of Art, Bochum, Germany, 1994

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Bilder / Paintings, Höcherl-Verlag, Munich, Germany, 1994

    Fifteen Profiles: Distinguished California Modernists, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA, United States, 1995

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onlsow Ford, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, University of Santiago, Santiago, Chile, 1995

    Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art 1934-1957, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, United States, 1995

    Inner World Images of the Unconscious, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 1995

    Solo exhibition, Quest of the Inner-Worlds: Paintings by Gordon Onslow Ford, A&C Gallery, JFK University, Berkeley, CA, United States, 1996

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Werke 1938 – 1995, Kunstlerforum Bonn, Bonn, Germany, 1996, United States, 1997

    Surrealism and American Art 1932-1949, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL, United States, 1997

    Années 30 en Europe 1929-1939, Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France, 1997

    Aspekte Imaginativer Kunst, Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 1997

    Through the Light: Exploration into Consciousness, A&C Gallery, JFK University, Berkeley, CA, United States, 1997

    Wegbereiter des Abstrakten Expressionismus in Amerika, Gordon Onslow Ford, Lee Mullican, Wolfgang Paalen, Kunstrverein Arnsberg, Nuremberg, Germany, 1998

    The Surrealist Vision: Europe and the Americas, The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT, United States, 1998

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Mirando en lo profound / Seeing in Depth, Fundación Eugenio Granell, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1998

    The Surrealists in Exile and the Beginning of the New York School, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 1999

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford Paintings, Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2000

    Made in California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2000

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Radiant Beings, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2001

    Vital Forms: American Art in the Atomic Age, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, United States, 2001

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford Paintings, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2001

    Made in USA, l’Art Américain, 1908-1943, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France, 2001

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: The Seminal Years, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2003

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Recent Works, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2003

    Roberto Matta and Gordon Onslow Ford: A Vision Shared, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2003

    Exploring the Open Mind: Paintings from the 1950’s and 1960’s, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2003

    Voyagers in Space: Paintings from the 1970’s and 1980’s, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2004

    Surrealism USA, National Academy Museum, New York, NY, United States, 2005

    Solo exhibition, The Great Spaces of the Mind: Paintings from the 1990’s to 2000’s, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2005

    Threshold of a New Art – Artwork of the 1950’s, A Selection from the Lucid Art Foundation Collection, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2006

    Solo exhibition, The Formative Years: Paintings from the 1930’s to 1940’s, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2006

    1937: Perfecktion und Zerstorung, Kunsthalle-Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, 2007

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: From the Vallejo: 1949-1959, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2007

    Dreams on Canvas, Nassau County Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States, 2007

    Landscapes of Consciousness, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2008

    The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia,1860-1989, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, United States, 2009

    Cosmic: Artists Consider Astronomy, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, ID, United States, 2010

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Paintings and Works on Paper 1939 – 1951, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, New York, NY, United States, 2010

    The Visionary Art of Morris Graves, Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2010

    Surrealism: New Worlds, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2011

    The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, 2011

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Voyager and Visionary, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, United States, 2012

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Centennial Celebration, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2012

    Stellar Orbits, Wendi Norris Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2012

    Farewell to Surrealism: The Dyn Circle in Mexico, Getty Research Institute, Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2013

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Centennial Celebration, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2013

    Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art & Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2013

    Action and Chance: A New Look at Drip, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2013

    Image to Gesture 1945-1969: California Postwar Abstraction, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 2013

    Restless Universe: Inner Thought/Outer Space, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 2014

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Space Elements, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 2014

    Western Light, Ecstatic Landscapes, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, ID, United States, 2014

    Science in Surrealism, Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2015

    Fields of Dream: The Surrealist Landscape, Di Donna Gallery, New York, NY, United States, 2015

    The Avant-Garde Collection, Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, CA, United States, 2015

    Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 2016

    Dessins surréalistes sur papier, Galerie 1900–2000, Paris, France, 2017

    Los Modernos. Dialogues France/Mexico, Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, France, 2017

    Dimensionism: Modern Art in the Age of Einstein, Berkeley Museum of Art, Berkeley, CA, United States, 2018

    Reverberations: A Visual Conversation, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA, United States, 2018

    Collecting on the Edge, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, UT, United States, 2018

    Hello World. Revising a Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany, 2018

    Ship of Dreams: Artists, Poets and Visionaries of the S.S. Vallejo, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA, United States, 2018; then 2019 at Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA, United States

    Be Not Still: Living in Uncertain Times (Part I), di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA, United States, 2018

    The Surrealist Revolution in America, Napa Valley Museum, Yountville, CA, United States, 2019

    Surrealism in Mexico, Di Donna Galleries, New York, NY, United States, 2019

    FAULTline Art Show–The County Experience, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael, CA, United States, 2020

    Le Surréalisme dans l’art américain, Centre de la Vieille Charité, City of Marseille, France, 2021

    Gordon Onslow Ford and JB Blunk, Blunk Space Gallery, Point Reyes, CA, United States, 2022

    Solo exhibition, Gordon Onslow Ford: Member of the Lucid Art Movement, Findlay Galleries, New York, NY, United States, 2022

    Tertium Organum: Traversing Space, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2022

    Surrealism Beyond Borders, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom 2022

    Four Horizons, Blunk Space Gallery, Point Reyes, CA, United States, 2023

    In the Shadow of Mt. Tam, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, Mill Valley, CA, United States, 2023

    Same Blue as the Sky, Four One Nine, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2023

    Surréalisme, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2024

    Roberto Matta: All Things Are Changing in All Dimensions, Blum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2024

    Gertrud Parker: The Possible, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA, United States, 2024

    Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes, Hepworth Wakefield Museum, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, 2025

    Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 2025

    Gordon Onslow Ford & Roberto Matta, La Dynamique intérieure, la sincère amitié, Galerie Diane de Polignac, Paris, France, 2025

  • Bibliography
    Gordon Onslow Ford in his studio in the Ferryboat Vallejo, Sausalito, CA, USA, 1956 ©Gordon Onslow Ford Archive, Lucid Art Foundation
    Gordon Onslow Ford in his studio in the Ferryboat Vallejo, Sausalito, CA, USA, 1956 ©Gordon Onslow Ford Archive, Lucid Art Foundation

    Gordon Onslow Ford, Painting in the Instant, Harry N. Abrams, Londres, 1964

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford, Creation, cat. exp. Galerie Schreiner AG, Bâle, 1978

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford Retrospective Exhibition, cat. exp. Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, 1977

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford, Yves Tanguy and Automatism, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1983

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford, Insights, Lapis Press, Culver City, CA, 1991

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford, Ecomorphology: A Direction in Painting that Leads to Seeing in Depth, Bishop Pine Press, Inverness, CA, 1993

     

    Andreas Neufert, Gordon Onslow Ford: Bilder / Paintings, cat. exp. Galerie Höcherl-Verlag, Munich, 1994

     

    Fariba Bogzaran, Through the Light: An Exploration into Consciousness, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness et Arts and Consciousness Gallery, John.F Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA,1997

     

    Andreas Neufert, Gordon Onslow Ford: Bilder / Paintings, cat. exp. Galerie Höcherl-Verlag, Munich, 1994

     

    Fariba Bogzaran, Images of the Lucid Mind: A Phenomenological Study of Lucid Dreaming and Modern Painting. Interviews avec Gordon Onslow Ford, Roberto Matta, Lee Mullican et John Anderson (Dissertation de doctorat), Michigan, U.M.I., 1996

     

    Fariba Bogzaran (Ed.), commissaire d’exposition. The Quest of the Inner-Worlds: Paintings by Gordon Onslow Ford, cat. exp., contributions de Fariba Bogzaran, Charles Miedzinski, Gordon Onslow Ford et Martica Sawin, Arts and Consciousness Gallery, John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA, 1996

     

    Fariba Bogzaran, commissaire d’exposition, Through the Light: An Exploration into Consciousness, Arts and Consciousness Gallery, John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA, Dream Creations, 1997

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford, collaboration avec Fariba Bogzaran, Once Upon A Time, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, CA, 1999

     

    Peter Selz & Fariba Bogzaran, Gordon Onslow Ford: Exploring the Open Mind: Paintings from the 1950’s and 1960’s, cat. exp., Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2003

     

    Martica Sawin, Gordon Onslow Ford: Voyagers in Space : Paintings from the 1970’s and 1980’s, cat exp. Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2004

     

    Fariba Bogzaran, Gordon Onslow Ford: The Great Spaces of the Mind–Paintings from the 1990’s and 2000’s, cat exp. Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2005

     

    Roland Weinstein & Sepp Hiekisch-Picard, Gordon Onslow Ford : the Formative Years : Paintings from the 1930’s and 1940’s, cat exp. Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2006

     

    Fariba Bogzaran, Landscapes of Consciousness: A Circle of Artists at the Beginning of Lucid Art, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness et Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2008

     

    Martica Sawin, Gordon Onslow Ford: Paintings and Works on Paper 1939-1951, Francis M. Naumann Gallery, New York, NY, 2010

     

    Fariba Bogzaran, (Ed). Visionaries of the S.S. Vallejo: 1949-1969, contributions de Fariba Bogzaran, Linda Keaton et David Keaton (commissaires d’exposition), Elizabeth Stroman et Laura Whitcomb. Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, CA, 2018

     

    Fariba Bogzara, (Ed). Gordon Onslow Ford: A Man on a Green Island, contributions de Dawn Ades, Tere Arcq, Fariba Bogzaran, Terri Geis, Sepp Hiekisch-Picard, Andreas Neufert et Ilene Susan Fort, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, CA, 2019

     

    Roberto Matta, Red Hat, Green Hat, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, CA, 2024

     

    Gordon Onslow Ford, Surrealist Painting: An Adventure into Human Consciousness, conférences complètes de la New School for Social Research (janvier-mars 1941), Introduction de Caterina Caputo, Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, 2025

     

    Christian Demare, Didier Ottinger, Fariba Bogzaran, Caterina Caputo et Ramuntcho Matta, Gordon Onslow Ford & Roberto Matta, Endless Crossroads, Paris, Éditions sometimeStudio, 2025