Exploring the multifaceted work of British-born American painter Gordon Onslow Ford (1912–2003) and his contributions to the history of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, this symposium is occasioned by the publication of the first monograph devoted to the artist, Gordon Onslow Ford: A Man on a Green Island; it also marks the hundredth anniversary of Surrealism. International scholars who contributed to the book will each address a distinct period of Onslow Ford’s life and work, mapping the physical and philosophical trajectory of the artist who took a radical turn in the late 1930s from landscape painting to an exploration of invisible realms.

Tere Arcq, an art historian and independent curator specializing in the work of Surrealist women, will discuss Onslow Ford’s time with Surrealists during the war in Mexico. Based in Mexico City, Arcq has worked as chief curator at the Museo de Arte Moderno and organized exhibitions of the work of Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon, Leonora Carrington, and others.

Fariba Bogzaran, who edited the book, will moderate the symposium and speak about Onslow Ford’s importance in relation to the study of art and consciousness. A scholar and artist, Bogzaran founded the dream studies program at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley and is the founding director of the Lucid Art Foundation, created in collaboration with Onslow Ford. She has written extensively on the artist’s work and is coauthor of Extraordinary Dreams and Integral Dreaming.

Ilene Susan Fort, curator emerita of American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will consider the artist’s work in postwar California. During more than thirty years as curator of American art at LACMA, Fort curated numerous exhibitions; she was a cocurator (along with symposium presenters Tere Arcq and Terri Geis) of In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, and coauthored Paintings of California.

Terri Geis, art historian and curator at Pomona College Museum of Art, will address the work of Onslow Ford’s wife Jacqueline Johnson and her role in the group Dynaton. Geis has published extensively on Surrealism and women artists.

A book signing will follow the program.