William
Kentridge
From
Private Collections
8 November – 10 December 2005
34 LONG presents an exhilarating exhibition of works by WILLIAM
KENTRIDGE, arguably South Africa’s most widely acclaimed artist.
Numerous retrospective exhibitions locally and abroad and a devoted
following of international galleries, museums, and private
collectors attest to the popularity of Kentridge’s diverse oeuvre,
executed during a relatively short but productive twenty-six year
career. Now, more than two decades later, some precious works from
the early years of his artistic career are returning to the
investment market.
Kentridge commenced drawing seriously around 1979, left it for some
time, and began producing again around 1984, this time on large
format. In these early drawings as well as his animated films of the
1990s he dealt largely with violence and upheaval as a universal
theme, fuelled by the historic turbulence in South Africa at the
time. He dissected and depicted the agony and torment of
Apartheid’s brutal demise and caught the eye of critics,
collectors and the public with his poetic facility as a draughtsman.
Through the years the leitmotif in his work has been the dark
underbelly of human desire: ambition and frailty, conceit and
hubris. In collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company he
extended his drawing to different media, producing theatrical
pieces, animated movies and opera. His drawings are embedded in the
production processes of these multifaceted productions, yet
exhibited in isolation they are no less powerful as independent
visual artworks. His bronzes sculptures, first cast in limited
edition in 1999, flowed directly from his popular shadow movies.
These ever-popular sculptural works, vigorous and exquisite, have
grown in popularity and have become a fine investment.
Kentridge’s latest production, recently shown in Belgium, Learning
to play the flute, is based on Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
and has once again inspired astonishment at his accomplished
diversity and creativity. New lithographs and etchings from this
production will also be on show at 34 LONG.
Kentridge acknowledges that his creative process of shifting from
charcoal drawing, to prints, to a theatre project, sometimes within
a single day, is quite unusual. However he values working in
multiple media concurrently, as problems and solutions encountered
in one medium enrich his exploration of related ideas and imagery in
another.
This unique exhibition presents works from some private collections.
It puts on show some of Kentridge’s editioned works on paper which
sold out rapidly and have returned to the market extremely rarely,
some works in bronze and an original edition of Felix in Exile,
his 1999 movie as well as some charcoal drawings. Also on exhibition will be some of his latest works
which were done overseas and have not been shown or sold in South
Africa before.
