Hawkes is a self-taught artist who has worked predominantly throughout his life with wood. A renowned sculptor and modern furniture designer and maker. Setting up his own studio he has created work in his signature style for many private and corporate clients. Most memorable were Lord Bath’s millennium bed and library, the Epsom Derby Trophy, a stand in Westminster Palace for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and a writing desk for Monte Carlo’s Governor General.
His monumental abstract sculptures have been installed at La Défense, Paris and in London, in Covent Garden and New Bond Street. His work is held in many important private collections.
His work encompasses abstract flowing forms, chasing purity in curves, a love of sacred & fractal geometry, all inspired in the early 70’s by Henry Moore and Naum Gabo.
“I have been always been chasing the line. The line’s purity and shape has always fascinated me. It’s the romantic side of geometry. ‘The Sphelix’ which I did in 1978 with David Constable is a great example of this. It is all beautiful curves and yet it’s made with a straight line. A wonderful enigma. The Sphelix has been described as the first four-dimensional sculpture. It exists in 3D but the fourth dimension is the time that it takes to twist it together to make a sphere”.
Hawkes is a self-taught artist who has worked predominantly throughout his life with wood. A renowned modern furniture designer and maker, he has been chosen to exhibit internationally, from New York to Sydney. After a brief and uninspiring time at Art School he joined the communal workshops 4011⁄2 in Vauxhall, London.
Setting up his own studio he has created work in his signature style for many private and corporate clients. Most memorable were Lord Bath’s millennium bed and library, the Epsom Derby Trophy, a stand in Westminster Palace for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and a writing desk for Monte Carlo’s Governor General.
His monumental sculptures have been installed in La Défense, Paris and Covent Garden, London, and are held in many important private collections.
His new monumental work entitled ‘What’s the Point’ proposed for Masterpiece Sculpture has since been delivered to a private garden in London belonging to a well-known collector. The beginning of 2023 sees Hawkes developing his sculpture, ‘Sphelix’ on a monumental scale, which he says is “The perfect shape, organic in curve and industrial in form, ‘Sphelix’ has been an obsession for half my lifetime”.
Hawkes’s solo exhibition ‘Chasing the Line’ was held at Sladmore in 2020.
Artworks
View all Artworks >
Click below to listen to the full episode of Johnny Hawkes on The Art in Mayfair Podcast:
Johnny Hawkes talks to Maeve Doyle about the origins of his sculpture ‘Sphelix’: the “perfect shape, …an enigma on the curve”. Sladmore was delighted to show the monumental ‘Sphelix’ on New Bond Street as part of the Art in Mayfair Sculpture Trail this summer. Listen to hear Johnny’s fascinating story about its creation and his journey as a sculptor and furniture maker.
Exhibitions
View all Exhibitions >
