Leopard On Boulder
- Bronze
- 69 x 32.75 x 73.5 in
- Dylan Lewis
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$100000. - 120000. Dylan Lewis has always drawn his biggest inspiration from the natural environment around his home. Starting in early childhood he collected the rocks bone fragments and other parts of the natural world from the canyons plains and ancient rock formations of his native South Africa. Today he begins his creative process outside of his current home and studio in Stellenbosch in the mountain range that forms the barrier between the Cape Peninsula and the interior of South Africa. Over time his subject matter has flowed from the wilderness to the animal to fragmented forms and to the human/animal interface. This last subject is one in which Lewis searches wilderness myth and ancient belief for inspiration and answers. A major theme through his works is the wild and primitive within where does animal kind end and humankind begin. Lewis' large cat sculptures began as a response to the animal in its natural environment. They embodied the same untamed freedom he experienced in the wilderness while showing the physical attitudes and expressions of the wild beasts they were. /While his work breaks from realism there is the influence of the great French animalier Antoine-Louis Bayre and the Italian sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti. As Bayre caused controversy in Paris elevating the position of animals to a spot previously reserved for the human form and Bugatti depicted them in a stylized form; Lewis has combined both of these aspects into his work. The animals' elevated positions accentuate the elevated position Lewis bestows upon the animal; while at the same time the artist's visible handprints in the sculpture is another acknowledgement of the human and animal connection. In June of 2007 Christie's did a solo auction of Lewis' work titled "Predators and Prey" featuring work from his early animal period. He became one of a handful of living artists to have such an event at such a prestigious auction house. This achievement was repeated in June of 2011 with "Predators and Prey II" featuring work from his later animal period. A major commission was completed in 1997 of 18 life-sized leopard sculptures for the Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane South Africa. While continually exhibiting in South Africa his works are also regularly shown in London San Francisco and Toronto.