Art

John Lewis Winged Figure

Exhibit 5 John Lewis Winged Figure
It’s probable that most shoppers strolling along Oxford Street are unaware (if they notice it at all) that the large abstract sculpture on the side of the John Lewis department store is by one of the twentieth century’s best-known British sculptors, Dame Barbara Hepworth. When the new store opened in 1960, a competition to design a work for the location had proved unsuccessful so Hepworth, a friend and contemporary of Henry Moore, was asked to design something that would ‘evoke the sensation of freedom’. The sculpture, called ‘The Winged Figure’, was the result. It may not be the best example of Hepworth’s work, for that see 1953’s ‘Monolyth-Empyrean’ in the grounds of Kenwood House, but it is a good example of the public sculptures we can easily take for granted and walk past every day.
John Lewis, 278-306 Oxford St, W1.Oxford Circus tube. Feature continues

Catford Black Cat
Black cats are notoriously mysterious and this sculpture of a giant, yellow-eyed feline, playfully poised over the sign to the Catford shopping centre is no exception. While the centre itself was built by brutalist architect Owen Luder in 1973, the cat seems to have appeared a few years later, but neither local council Lewisham nor the building’s current owner, property company St Modwen (which has to pay a nominal licence to the council to keep the cat on its perch), seem able to shed light on how and when the animal arrived. Both loved and loathed by local residents, the mischievous moggy has become so synonymous with the town’s image that consultation over future plans to regenerate the town centre will also have to take the fate of the cat into account.
Catford Centre, Winslade Way, SE6. Catford or Catford Bridge rail.