William Kentridge (South African artist)
William Kentridge is a famous South African artist who draws and erases with charcoal. What is interesting about him is that he records his compositions at each stage and creates a video projection of the re-worked source drawings. This makes his aesthetic concerns linked intimately with the descriptive power of his work. There is a palpable tension in his quiet works because of the brutality of the content. Kentridge shows his concerns of post-Apartheid South Africa with an unparalleled lyricism in his compositions 1. Kentridge is a filmmaker and sculptor too and has been heavily involved in theatre. One can see his interests in connecting drawing and film. Pastel and charcoal have dominated his works and carry a strong expressionistic character. While European art and culture have influenced the South African artist, he remains focused on his Jewish, German and Lithuanian roots 2. His classical themes deal with contemporary African subjects.
The essay analyses three works in different media by William Kentridge and these include "Art in the State of Grace," which is done on paper, “Stereoscope,” which is a film by Kentridge and “The Nose” a theatrical production by the artist. His work shows that one can expand the category of political art, and there is a complex layering of personal and political memory in his artwork and creations.
____________________1"William Kentridge.". 2016. Artsy.net (April 26, 2016).https://www.artsy.net/artist/william-kentridge. 2 "William Kentridge born 1955.". 2004. tate.org. (April 26, 2016). http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-kentridge-2680.
Art in a State of Grace, 1988 "Art in a State of Grace" is a Silkscreen print and measures 160 × 100 cm. It was made in 1988 by Kentridge, who signs his name on the lower right side. The artwork is exhibited at Barbara Krakow Gallery. The silkscreen print on Velin Arches and brown paper 3.
Kentridge’s affinity for posters led to the creation of the striking silk screens and "Art in the State of Grace" is one from the series of "Art in a State of Hope" and "Art in a State of Seige." "Art in a State of Grace" is about selfish pleasures where the being looks no further than his own desires and needs. The imagery used in the poster is a powerful one.
The poster shows a woman seated with her dining plate in front of her. The artist has used black, white and brown colors prominently, with a little bit of grey on the upper side. There are powerful and definite strokes used by the artist. This shows that he is very clear about what he wants to depict on the paper. The face of the woman is turned towards one side and is done in white. She wears a black dress and a string of pearls around her neck and pears in here ear. Her hair is done neatly, and she wears a bow. She wears stylish glasses on her eyes and carries a very haughty expression. The plate is empty, and the fork and spoon are placed at an odd angle. Perhaps the remnants of the fish and its bones lie on the plate. A tail of fish appears from under the plate on one side. Strangely, the artist has placed a fish on the head of the women as if it is a hat. The fish lies smugly atop her head and has a satisfying expression on its face. It looks healthy and has its tail turned up, which shows that it has a life. The edges of the poster are borders with brown and are frayed. Charcoal strokes make a rough border around the figure, which is followed by a grey rectangular shape and the white inside.
____________________3 Art in the State of Grace." 2016. artsy.net. (April 26, 2016).
. Through "Art in the State of Grace," the artist tries to convey the abundance of food and wealth for the rich. The woman certainly carries a very proud expression. According to the artists, the State of Grace is inadmissible to him as the world has not changed much between now and then 4. “Stereoscope” “Stereoscope,” a film by Kentridge is an eight-minute sequence of animations that are hand-drawn. It shows a businessman wearing a dark chalk-striped suit sitting at his desk piled with papers. There is a crowd of people who move to and forth swiftly and look as proliferated and intersected cobalt-blue lines. Those images of men and women can be seen moving through city streets. There are helpless victims who are being kicked and beaten up. Towards the end, the film shows the businessman reappearing and holding his head in anguish. The word “GIVE,” appears in the capital and large letter and gets changed to “FORGIVE.” As the businessman stands, blue water pours from his pockets and clothes, which gradually fills the room.
Kentridge has drawn rough and crude images, but the drawings are powerful, done in charcoal and blue pastel. The film makes use of a stop-motion technique 5 which is old-fashioned. “Stereoscope” shows the terrible history of apartheid and the aftermath. It is a part of Kentridge’s “Nine Drawings for Projection,” and was made when the situation was grim in South Africa. Police brutality was on the rise and arrests were made. Kentridge himself felt like a failure at everything he tried his hand at. The businessman in the pin-striped suit is based on the character, Soho Eckstein that he had used for his posters for trade unions.
____________________4 Sue Williamson, Resistance Art in South Africa (Juta and Company, 2010), 158.5Calvin Tomkins. "Lines of Resistance." 2010. newyorker (April 26, 2016). http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/18/lines-of-resistance.
As for the other figures in “Stereoscope”, he decided to make them without clothes. According to the artist, there were no storyboards, and the film doesn’t start with a social message. It begins with images that provoke you and create interest. He used a single charcoal drawing for the sequence and called his method “stone-age animation 6. “The Nose”
“The Nose” is a designed production by Kentridge , which is directed by him. This is a rare performance of opera which is a work of Dmitri Shostakovich went on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. If Kentridge was feeling stressed, he didn’t show it. He looked thoughtful but confident before the show. The Shostakovich opera is based on a plot by Nikolai Gogol and this is his first performance on stage where he appeared as a solo artist 7. The plot is brief but filled with dramatic events. An official in tsarist Russia realizes that his nose has disappeared when he gets up one day. He makes frantic efforts to find it, and the nose snubs him every time he meets it. After a series of humorous and embarrassing happenstances, Kovalyov is reunited with his nose. The forty-minute performance of “The Noses,” by Kentridge allows him to explore the absurdist moments in literature, history as well as his own life. He projected video imageries of himself on the stage a couple of times. Those figures came on stage and imitated Kentridge’s habits. The artist made exact attempts that were placed timely to intimidate and was able to draw out some uneasy laughs from his audience, but they stayed with the artist and his performance. He ended the performance in thoughtful silence and the spectacular premiere of the opera.
____________________6 Calvin Tomkins. "Lines of Resistance." 2010. newyorker (April 26, 2016)..7 Calvin Tomkins. "Lines of Resistance." 2010. newyorker (April 26, 2016).
“The Nose” is an example that it works as a perfect vehicle for Kentridge, what with its playful meandering of reality and observations. The author, Gogol says that it is the impossible that is happening around us all the time. According to Kentridge, this is a productive way of understanding the world. Kentridge’s animated films embody fluidity and ambiguity along with abstraction and symbolism in the forms and colors. His aim is to generate fresh and symbolic meanings with the help of abstraction of form and color 8. However, the content and meaning of his films remain fluid. The artwork of Kentridge and the wider range of mediums used by him shed light on the concept of political art within the visual arts. At the core of his artwork, one finds a complex agenda for human thought that is rarely found in other works. Perhaps his tendency towards complexity relates to his origins and roots when he grew in a family of most distinguished anti-apartheid lawyers 9. His surroundings soon made him understand the political abnormality in which he was living. As he was indecisive about the medium to choose, he worked in all namely, film, theatre, and drawing. He realized that this was the only way that he would be able to work and felt that the cross-fertilization of the media helped him to express himself better. As an artist and film-maker, he has re-examined South Africa’s recent history and the good and the bad side. He shows the incompleteness of victims and those who engage in this victimization. All through his career, he has been involved in art, theater, film, politics and television to address the human condition, showing the emotions and social conflicts.
____________________8 Wen-Shu Lai, Aesthetics in William Kentridge's“Drawings for Projection ” (National Chiao Tung University, 2008), 24-43.9 Karen Verschooren, William Kentridge: Complexity and intimacy (Press, 2005), 21..
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Art in the State of Grace." 2016. artsy.net. (April 26, 2016). https://www.artsy.net/artwork/william-kentridge-art-in-the-state-of-grace
Tomkins, Calvin "Lines of Resistance." 2010. newyorker (April 26, 2016). http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/18/lines-of-resistance
Verschooren, Karen, William Kentridge: Complexity and intimacy (Press, 2005), 21."William Kentridge.". 2016. Artsy.net (April 26, 2016). https://www.artsy.net/artist/william-kentridge
"William Kentridge born 1955.” 2004. tate.org. (April 26, 2016). http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-kentridge-2680
Wen-Shu Lai, Aesthetics in William Kentridge's“Drawings for Projection” (National Chiao Tung University, 2008), 24-43
Williamson Sue, Resistance Art in South Africa (Juta and Company, 2010), 158.
