EXHIBITIONS |
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Zen and the art of cities
Other shows: Housing & Homelessness
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City John Lewis (b.1933)
The Dome, 1998-99. Oil on canvas
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John Lewis has always been drawn to panoramic views - be they in remote countryside or in the middle of the city. When in 1994 he had the opportunity to contemplate London from the 50th floor of Canary Wharf Tower, he was not prepared for what he experienced. The urge to paint the view was so sweeping that he stated 'I have been born to paint this view' He fought for the privilege of gaining access to the top of Canary Wharf, enrolling the help of the Museum of London when the odds seemed against him. Luckily his 'residency' at Canary Wharf lasted almost two years. But then, how was he to do justice to the 360 degrees view overwhelming hem? John Lewis responded by increasing the scale of his already large canvasses and the building of the Millennium Dome on the South Bank gave an early focus to the work as illustrated here. He 'attacked' his subject with passion and the result is astonishingly different from Ben Johnson's calm and reasoning approach |
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