Post by Taxigirl on Nov 19, 2003 10:51:28 GMT
Onslow Ford's Determination of Gender, 1939, from Tate collection
Gordon Onslow Ford, the last surviving member of the Paris 1930s Surrealist art set led by Andre Breton, has died.
Onslow Ford, born in England in 1912, suffered a stroke in California, which had been his home for 50 years.
He had joined the group that included Breton, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy in 1938 and worked with them until 1944.
He then formed a group called Dynaton in the US and, with trademark paintings of circles, dots and lines, launched a quest to depict "the inner worlds".
He outlived Breton by 37 years, while Tanguy died in 1955 and Ernst died in 1976.
Isolated
Onslow Ford joined the British Navy after a military education but left in 1937 to pursue painting.
On moving to Paris, he worked with Fernand Leger and Chilean artist Roberto Matta before joining Breton's Surrealist set.
He then travelled to New York in 1941, where he met and married writer Jacqueline Johnson, and they moved to Mexico and then California, where he gradually turned away from Surrealism.
The last half of his life was spent living and working in the isolated hills near the community of Inverness in northern California.