Auction Results:
In spite of turbulent economic times, the Dylan Lewis: Shapeshifting auction on Tuesday, September 10th was a huge success.
The Christie’s London King Street sale room was packed with art collectors and buyers, with more joining from 7 different countries around the world via internet and telephone bidding. 100% of the lots offered were sold amidst fierce international bidding, and prices largely exceeded expectations with many sculptures selling above their high estimates.
This success would not have been possible without the dedication of the Christie’s sales team, the Dylan Lewis Studio team and the enthusiastic support of Dylan Lewis collectors around the world.
The photograph’s below document the Exhibition, the ‘Christie’s Lates’ event, as well as the installation of Dylan’s work on St. James Park, London.
* Dylan was the keynote speaker at a ‘Christie’s Lates’ event, which took place the evening before the auction. With over 1000 guests in attendance, this event was one of their busiest so far in the series.
Hosted by Lord and Lady Ashbrook, a selection of bronzes from the Christie’s Predators & Prey II auction was displayed at the magnificent Arley Hall and Gardens from 18 to 22 May 2011. The sculptures were shown alongside a pre-auction exhibition by world-renowned British artist L.S. Lowry, which included his most famous painting, The Match.
The gardens, considered among the finest in Britain, provided a spectacular backdrop for the sculptures. This pre-auction exhibition was opened by Lord David Linley, Chairman of Christie’s UK, and was sponsored by Audi UK. Seeing Africa’s big cats placed among the herbaceous borders, holm oak columns and avenue of pleached lime trees provided an awe-inspiring exhibition for visitors and collectors alike.
On 16 June 2011 Christie’s South Kensington hosted the second solo auction of Dylan Lewis animal bronzes. This sale followed on from Lewis’s solo auction in 2007 at Christie’s, titled Predators & Prey. That auction featured predominantly works from the earlier years of Lewis’s animal period, whereas Predators & Prey II featured works predominantly from the later part of that period. The works were on view for a week prior to the auction, and the opening event on 9 June saw more than 400 collectors and admirers of Lewis’s work coming out in support of his final solo auction of animal works. With bidding from across the world via phone, internet and in person, the sale realised a solid 95% sold result.
Following on from Shapeshifting: From Animal to Human at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch, in the summer of 2009 Lewis held a solo exhibition at Christie’s South Kensington, where a continuance of Shapeshifting: From Animal to Human introduced his new exploration of the male figure. In addition to this exhibition, Lewis had great success with a solo auction titled Predators and Prey at Christie’s London in 2007, in which a selection of the last editions of his animal bronzes went under the hammer.
Through this exhibition’s carefully selected series of non-chronological works and installations, it became possible to trace the threads underlying Lewis’s progression from wilderness, to animal, to fragmented animal forms, to the human/animal interface embodied in his latest figure work.
Lewis’s new male figures were first shown on an international platform at Christie’s South Kensington with this exhibition.
With Predators and Prey, Lewis became one of only a handful of living artists to have a solo auction at this prestigious auction house. A notable feature of the auction was that the public was able to preview the sculptures at the Royal Geographic Society of London, where Lewis delivered lectures about his work and inspiration.
