Notes

Dylan Lewis has prodigiously explored the feline form within his artworks. While he has sculpted smaller cats, his main focus has been on large predators: lions, cheetahs, and leopards. These cats embody a metaphorical quality for Lewis, he feels that they are ‘the ancient guardian of the wilderness, repository of elegance, sensuality and power’¹ and he has rendered them performing many different activities of their daily lives such as hunting, playing, stretching and, here, resting. Their lithe bodies are richly textured, echoing the wildness of the natural landscape, and one can often find the artist’s own fingerprints within the animal’s fur.

1.  Dylan Lewis in Laura Twiggs (ed) (2006), Forces of Nature: The Sculpture of Dylan Lewis, Pardus Publishing, page 42.

Exhibited

Everard Read, Johannesburg Booth, ART LONDON4, London, June 2004.

Literature

Laura Twiggs (ed) (2011) Dylan Lewis: Animal Bronzes 1989–2005: The Collectors’ Guide, Cape Town: Pardus, another cast from the edition illustrated on page 165.