Biography
BIOGRAPHY
1943
Born 23rd June at Bowness Nursing Home, Lake Windermere. His mother, Joan and brother, Christopher, had been evacuated from Liverpool, to spend the war years at Brow Head Farm, in Westmorland while his father was a Flight Lieutenant, in the RAF.
1945 – 1950
War ends and the family move back to Manchester. Attends William Hulme’s Grammar School.
1954
Appears with Hugh Weldon on the BBC television programme, All Your Own, with his model of the Battle of Agincourt.
1954 – 1959
Aged eleven attends the Royal College of Art London, part-time under the tutelage of Professor John Skeaping, and Kingston Grammar School.
1959 – 1961
Wimbledon Art School – passes his Intermediate Examination in Arts and Crafts.
1962 – 1965
Enters the Royal Academy Schools London, for the four year course in the School of Sculpture.
Scholarships while at Royal Academy schools: Landseer Travelling Scholarship (awarded twice).
President’s Prize for Craftsmanship.
Four Silver Medals for Sculpture. Royal Academy Gold Medal and Travelling Scholarship for Sculpture (youngest Gold Medal winner to date).
1965
First exhibition in London at the Tryon Gallery, Mayfair includes life-size carving in polished black Kellymount limestone. Stalking Leopard acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Russell Byers and presented to the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh.
Using travelling scholarships from the Royal Academy, starts his annual study tours to Africa Studies under Professor Reinhold Hofmann, Department of Comparative Anatomy, University College, Nairobi.
1966
Travels to South Africa to exhibit at the Pieter Wenning Gallery, Johannesburg
1967
Exhibition at the Incurable Collector, New York includes sale of the Roaring Lion in Blu Turquin marble – acquired by a private collector.
Study tour United States including guest appearance on NBC. Breakfast Show with Hugh Downes and Barbara Walters.
1969
First solo exhibition in London Jonathan Kenworthy Bronzes and Drawings: Movement and Wildlife in Africa Tryon Gallery.
Ernest Hemingway Memorial Commission, Idaho, Impala at the Waterhole.
Visits Mary Hemingway in Ketchum, Idaho.
Wins the Greenshield Foundation Award, Montreal.
1971 – 1973
Exhibition Jonathan Kenworthy: Impressions of Africa Tryon Gallery, London. Represents Britain at the International Exhibition, Budapest.
Exhibits Tryon Gallery, Nairobi and in the International Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas.
1975
Kenworthy ‘75 – Cheetah Hunting Series, Baboons and Nomads, Tyron Gallery, London. Exhibits The Cheetah Hunting Series Pieter Wenning Gallery, Johannesburg.
1976
George Inger’s Kenworthy’s Kenya one hour TV programme for World About Us first aired on BBC television Sunday 9th May.
1977
Study tour to Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush sees the game of Buz Kashi.
1978
Rembrandt Van Rijn Art Foundation Touring Exhibition The Animal in Art , South Africa.
1979
Exhibition in New York, Horsemen of the Hindu Kush at the Coe Kerr Gallery.
Greenshield Foundation Exhibition, Canada House London.
1985
The Leopard, a commission for Paul Wates, unveiled by the Lord Mayor of the City of London
Exhibition People of the Desert: Nomads of East Africa, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
1987
Visits the Lascaux Caves in France to give his views on cave art for WNET television documentary programme The Mind.
1993 – 1998
Grosvenor Estates commission the Lioness and Lesser Kudu cast by Meridian Bronze, London. First casting placed Eaton Hall, Cheshire.
1991
Exhibition Survival in the Serengeti – Coe Kerr Gallery, New York.
2000
Second casting of Lioness and Lesser Kudu unveiled by Duke of Westminster in Upper Grosvenor Gardens, London.
Exhibition of drawings and bronzes at Derek Johns Gallery, Duke Street, St James’s, London.
2002
Exhibition Rhythms of Life at the Gerald Peters Gallery, New York.
2005
Study tour to Uganda and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park to see mountain gorillas with Rungwe Kingdon.
Exhibits Stretching Tigress Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
2006
Retrospective view and reception at Sotheby’s, London hosted by Lord North Street.
Casting of large Seated Warthog by Pangolin Editions.
2007 – 2008
Casting of Mountain Gorillas by Pangolin Editions
Exhibition and launch of Jonathan Kenworthy Sculpture and Works on Paper at the Portland Gallery, London and at Gerald Peters Gallery, New York
Exhibition in Paris, curated by Axel Vervoordt Academia: exhibits the Stretching Tiger, Afghan Girls out Walking and the Charging Rhino
2010
Casts Somali Woman with Baby, Masai Boy with Goat and Samburu Moran with Pangolin Editions and Nomads produced by LionTree Publications.
2013
Exhibition Jonathan Kenworthy Six Decades of Sculpture at Pangolin London & Kings Place Gallery to celebrate his 70th birthday.
2015 – 2018
Casts new works – Greeting Lions, Hunting Lion, Lion on Rock, Somali mother & child.
2018
June celebrates 75th birthday and 50 years on Cherkley Estate, Surrey.
October printed a Sketchbook of Drawings – Kenworthy ’75 – launch and exhibition of sculptures at Shapero Rare Books, Mayfair.
2022
Casts Lioness with cubs.
2024
Studio Archive produced by Maia Kenworthy for LionTree Publications printed 100 copies only.
2025
Working on casting new works with Pangolin Editions.