William Kentridge: Ambiguity and Subtlety
Friday, February 16, 2018 at 9:00AM 
William Kentridge - General - 1993 (published 1998) - Engraving and watercolor - composition and sheet: 47 5/8 x 31 7/16" (121 x 79.8 cm) - Publisher: David Krut Fine Art, London - Printer: 107 Workshop, Melksham, England - Edition: 35 - MoMA, New YorkWilliam Kentridge (born 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again.
“Having witnessed first-hand one of the twentieth century’s most contentious struggles—the dissolution of apartheid—Kentridge brings the ambiguity and subtlety of personal experience to public subjects that are most often framed in narrowly defined terms.” (Art 21)
The work featured here was “created a year before South Africa's first nonracial democratic election, as right-wing opposition escalated and police brutality persisted, General isolates one of Kentridge's heartless protagonists. The vigorous line work here was printed from a rigid polycarbonate sheet the artist incised using an electric engraver. Kentridge made several experimental impressions, including this one, on sheets of paper that he first painted with watercolors—creating vivid coloration uncharacteristic of his work overall.” (MoMA exhibit gallery label)
Reader Comments