About
ABOUT
Modern British Sculptor Jonathan Kenworthy born in 1943, went to the Royal College of Art in 1954 and later the Royal Academy Schools, leaving with the lion’s share of prizes and scholarships, including the gold medal, in 1964. Now in his eighties he still lives at his studio home in the Surrey Hills. He continues to sculpt in clay and cast in bronze, although his early carvings in wood and stone are remarkable. In 1965 Aylmer Tryon sold his polished black life-size carving a Stalking Leopard to the Mellon collection for the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. His first solo exhibition with the Tryon Gallery in 1969, titled Movement and Wildlife in Africa, was followed by Impressions of Africa 1971 and Kenworthy ’75 – included his Cheetah Hunting Series.
The BBC first aired a one-hour programme on World About Us called Kenworthy’s Kenya in May 1976. It followed the artist on safari, in his studio and at the opening night of his last exhibition at the Tryon Gallery in Mayfair.
In 1979 the Coe Kerr Gallery opened the doors of their prestigious upper east side gallery in New York to Kenworthy collectors. The subjects of this exhibition, instead of being inspired by the African bush, were a result of his travels in Afghanistan. The Horsemen of the Hindu Kush was another sell out exhibition for Kenworthy and five years on the Coe Kerr Gallery was rewarded with two exhibitions – The People of the Desert – Nomads of East Africa and in 1991 with Survival in the Serengeti. Jonathan Kenworthy spent the next seven years working on the Lioness and Lesser Kudu for the Grosvenor Estate. In 2000, Derek Johns Fine Art exhibited drawings and sculpture in their West End gallery.
In 2002 he had an exhibition entitled Rhythms of Life with Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, which covered subjects as varied as Girls out Walking in Kabul, Yesterday’s Gods –a sculpture of Horus at Edfu, a Kuchi couple riding to Jalalabad, a Dinka nomad, a Turkana father and sons and a French wine connoisseur. In 2013 the Pangolin Gallery London had a retrospective exhibition – Jonathan Kenworthy Six Decades of Sculpture – where new and old sculptures spanning a long career were shown. Kenworthy continues to cast his bronzes with Pangolin Editions in Stroud and has a long a happy association with the Peter Stremmel Gallery in Reno.
He continues to draw and sculpt every day and is involved with an exciting new project which remains under wraps for now.