West of Roulette #3

Walton, a conceptual artist, did not date his work. He thought that art should exist in the moment of a viewer’s encounter, with no time stamp to anchor it in the past. Here, he dipped two pieces of fabric into gesso and allowed them to harden. They hang from a bar, a mysterious “couple” suspended in time, and we are asked to contemplate their relationship.

Walton was born in Camden, New Jersey, and briefly studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago before moving to Philadelphia in 1964. A commercial printmaker by trade, he later taught at Moore College of Art and Design (1974–1990). Drawn more to the materials of printmaking than to the finished product, Walton turned to three-dimensional work after seeing a sculpture exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Over his long career, he exhibited nationally and at many Philadelphia institutions, including Woodmere, PAFA, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Print Center, and the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University. His works are held in the permanent collections of Woodmere, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and Wellesley College.

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