Cheetah Hunting Series
Jonathan Kenworthy in 1975. Photo by Prudence Cuming.
Cheetah Hunting Series 1975
As Kenworthy developed his thoughts back at home in his studio he realised that, if he wanted to capture fully the dramatic burst of action as the cats ran down their prey, he needed to create the chase in its entirety.
With this realisation came a new concept. He would make a series of sculptures complementary and sequential, which would form one complete piece. In order to achieve this he drew and modelled multiple sequences of the chase before deciding on six movements to represent the phases of the hunt.
On 1 December 1975, BBC Radio 4’s Kaleidoscope broadcast a discussion between presenter Peter France and critic Michael Borer.
France: “Over the past ten years, 32 year-old Kenworthy has made annual trips to Africa which have paid off magnificently in his work and which, for me, capture all the essence of the animals and people he sculpts.”
Borer: “There’s a series of five cheetahs showing an alerted cheetah – then it’s stalking its prey and then racing after its prey and then tripping up a wildebeest and finally killing it. The sense of movement that this sculptor can get into a small bronze is fantastic. He doesn’t work hard on the surface to show every muscle, you can see the original of the sculpture is built up as it were with pieces of Plasticine being put on and this at a quick glance gives the impression of muscle showing through the detail, but the effect is of a muscular moving body and it comes over very well. He concentrated more on detail in the face of the cheetah, whereas the wildebeest that’s the victim of the incident really is only a foil and he doesn’t work on it very hard. I had to look at the catalogue to be sure it was a wildebeest – its a small wildebeest with rather long horns for a juvenile, but it doesn’t matter the detail is there, these are superb.”
Text taken from Jonathan Kenworthy Sculpture and Works on Paper, 2007.