CLAUDE MONET and James McNeil Whistler made art at the Savoy, a luxury hotel in central London. Monet painted Thames views at the turn of the 20th century, Whistler earlier drew the hotel’s renovations and pigeons.

The works include the painting of the diamond jubilee flotilla, which Mr. Downes made last year in the hotel’s Thames Foyer after viewing the flotilla from its roof. The painting, which is more than nine feet long, is displayed in the lobby. Jonty Hurwitz, a sculptor, recently made an anamorphic sculpture of a cat for a new restaurant; both commemorate a 1927 Art Deco sculpture of a black cat that the hotel still trots out when a dinner party has an unlucky 13 guests.

Jonty Hurwitz n’est pas un artiste comme les autres. Contrairement à ses confrères, il a effectivement choisi de concentrer ses efforts sur des nanosculptures ne mesurant que quelques dizaines de microns. Des statues tellement petites que l’artiste a besoin d’un microscope à balayage électronique pour les photographies. Stupéfiant.

Le mieux, c’est encore de raisonner en termes d’échelle pour se faire une idée de la taille de ces statues. La matière utilisée dans leur confection correspond en effet à la quantité d’ongles qui poussent sur nos doigts pendant cinq heures.

Jonty Hurwitz è un artista del Sud Africa che si serve di questa tecnica per alzare l’asticella della difficoltà: non più soggetti a due dimensioni riflessi nel cilindro ma vere e proprie sculture che sembrano del tutto astratte finché non vengono riflesse dello specchio.

Jonty Hurwitz é um artista de Londres que trabalha com arte anamórfica. As peças deformadas criadas por ele só revelam sua verdadeira forma quando refletias contra um espelho cilíndrico.

April 2017