Notes

Dylan Lewis began as a painter but built his artistic career on the success of his animal sculptures – predominantly big cats. After ten years working in this genre, he shifted his focus to the naked human form as a way to investigate the wildness of the human psyche. This exploration of nudity was also in response to his stepping away from the religious beliefs and conservatism of his upbringing; wherein this subject was prohibited. Lewis explains, ‘The cats held sexuality, violence and power at a time when I couldn’t.’¹ His early female figures, falling under the heading ‘forbidden forms’, are erotic, emotive, and ambiguous. This includes the present lot, Trans-figure IX, who, in throwing her head backwards, has contorted herself into curves and angles; sending her elbow to the sky, she covers her face with one arm while twisting the other behind her back and her knees are deeply bent as she balances herself precariously on the toes of one foot. Another edition of Trans-figure IX is installed close to
the entrance of the Dylan Lewis Sculpture Garden, a space he opened in Stellenbosch in 2017. The indigenous garden, particularly concentrated on fynbos, is a marriage of his love for the outdoors and sculpture – he has carefully shaped the land, curated the plants, and placed more than 60 of his own sculptures along the 4kms of winding paths in his exploration of ‘the wilderness within’.²

Provenance

Everard Read, Johannesburg.

Private Collection.

Literature

Laura Twiggs (2011) Dylan Lewis: Animal Bronzes 1989–2005: The Collector’s Guide, Cape Town: Pardus, work in progress illustrated in colour on page 185.