Now in his seventy seventh year, Jonathan Kenworthy is, as critic William Packer writes, ‘A modeller and carver of formidable accomplishment,’ and, ‘one of England’s most remarkable sculptors.’
He first exhibited in London in 1965 and shortly thereafter had his first solo exhibition, ‘Bronzes and Drawings: Movement and Wildlife in Africa.’ These, as with his future exhibitions, were sellout shows.
He started at the Royal College of Art in 1954 aged eleven. During his further years at the Royal Academy Schools, where he was the youngest ever student to win the Royal Academy Gold Medal and numerous other scholarships, he became fascinated by movement and the drama of the chase. This has made wild Africa one of his central themes.
Alongside a lifetime of travel to see the raw reality of survival on the continent’s great horizons, he encountered the nomadic peoples whose lives are defined by the spectacular deserts where they have lived for generations. These stoic, elegant travellers became compelling subjects for him.
In 1977 he visited Afghanistan and Nepal where the horsemen and the nomads of the Hindu Kush, together with the tiger, made their way into his art. He continues to travel and his safaris in East Africa, including more recently Rwanda, provide him with a studio full of drawings, paintings and sculptures.
