I am only an artist, my job is to make drawings, not to make sense. - William Kentridge
William Kentridge
ORIENTAL MOONLIGHT - Carl Fenton Orchestra 1930 on a German phonograph recod.mp3
German Tango_ Eugen Wolff Orch. - Nachtliche Gitarren_ 1945.mp3
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I have never tried to make illustrations of apartheid, but the drawings and films are certainly spawned by and feed off the brutalized society left in its wake. - William Kentridge
Film
Sculpture
Animation
Performance
Drawing
The Artist
The Artist
William Kentridge is an artist from South Africa that is known for his politically inspired artwork "I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures, and certain endings; an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check and nihilism at bay." - William KentridgeHe went from drawing to theatre school, then film industry, and television industry, and then production design. "No one will give you a job, do what youre doing stop thinking there is another trajectory for you." - William Kentridge He says he "ended up as an artist", it wasnt a choice "it was something I was reduced to".His family members are South African Jews from Lithuania. The plight of his family found in his work. He has an incandescent rage form from his rage against apartheid. He saw the power in it during his youth and it is also seen in his work. He had his fundamental shock that adults can do this to eachother, and he attempts to hang on to that initial shock and re-evoke it in his work. His art is rooted in Johannesburg, South Africa where he lives today with his family. This is seen in his film Johannesburg: The Second Greatest City After Paris (1982) which discusses the history of the city split in two: a white city and black people living invisibly.
The Art
Throughout his career Kentridge has moved between film drawing and stage, yet his first focus has remained drawing. He sees his theatre and film work as an extension from his drawing. Kentridge work has also been interpreted into tapestry and sculpture. All of his art work follow the same themes and are fluid. Many of the same imagry can be seen throughout his exhibits and each of the mediums, like the Nose.He uses art from different eras pushed togethers with significant themes, many times are ironic and plays on the morbidity and tradgedy in human kind. Like using music made in Berlin 1937 of the Nazis singing to the sun about the "benevolence of human kind and the brotherhood of man" (Kentridge, Anything is Possible).The opera, tapestry, sculpture, performance pieces, and films all comes together. These images and multiplicity are all part of the work itself and falling together.
Inspiration
Work
He deals with the subjects of apartheid, colonialism and totalitarianism, with ambiguity and dreamlike lyricism, with comedic interpretations.
Animated FilmsDone from charcoal drawings for his own interest and pleasure, his artistic expression resulted in his first film: Soho and Felix, which name came out of a dream. They are both a self-portrait and a third person. The drawing would continue until the sequence is done of the film, but hes admitted that hes not good at knowing when the art is finished.He lets his process show. He draws, shoots, erases and shoots again. We see what is in his mind and the process in which he creates his imagery. I am conscious of his means, even his touch. It was Kentridges genius to show how the directness of drawing could survive the indirectness of a camera-based art Janet Koplos, Art in America, December, 2002.His signature technique for his animated films, he photographs his charcoal drawings and photographs over time, recording scenes as they evolve in a script and storyboard. He has also worked with the Handspring Puppet Company creating multi-media pieces using puppets, live action, and animation since 1992. Black BoxThis artform can be seen with little machines performing on a miniatrure stage in front of a theatre with musical accompaniment and a multimedia background. Anamorphic Reflective DistortionAn unsual form that Kentridge uses is seen in his exhibit What Will Come (has already come) (2007), where the audience sees a projection of a distorted image onto a circle and a curved cylindrical mirror in the center corrects the distorted image. This particular piece is an anamorphic depiction inspired by the Italian-Ethiopian war in the 1930s where the "distortion is the correction and the original is the distortion" (Kentridge).Stereoscopic ViewerIn this element there are two completely flat images and all that is happening is that your brain is creating a three-dimensional view of depth. "Its more about the agency we have, whether we like it or not, to make sense of the world" (Kentridge).Sculpture and TapestrySculptures came later and were constructed from things taht were found. They were not things that were heavily worked over for a long time and they follow many of the same things in his performance pieces.He also has tapestry which is like a "frozen projection" or a "portable mural" (Kentridge).He was awarded the Carnegie Medal. Hew was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art in Baltimore.
Simultaneous films are seen in I Am Not Me, The Hoarse is Not Mine, which has the chaos of 8 films running at the same time, and shows the chaos of film making, and also talks of the society ripping itself apart. It's really about comedy and tragedy. The title is a way Russian pesants say denying guilt, which means, "I did not steal the horse". Many times he acts in his own screening pieces.The 7 fragments of George MélièsThe films thar are about his life in the studio creating work, being work, the ideas behind the work. Its an homage to a magician. The actor, the artwork, and the camera are all essential elements in both the magician and Kentridge's process. "One sees how magic is done, one mistake can ruin the process" (Kentridge).
Process
Videos
William Interviews Himself
Automatic Writing
"Return" | Art21 "Exclusive"
Invisible Mending (2003)
Life in the Studio Preview | Art21
Invisible Mending (2003)
William Interviews Himself
Automatic Writing
"Return" | Art21 "Exclusive"
Invisible Mending (2003)
Life in the Studio Preview | Art21
Invisible Mending (2003)
Source
Sources
Greg Krucera Gallery, Seattle Washington: William KentridgePBS: William Kentridge : Anything Is Possible (Video and Biography)Modern Museum of Art: William Kentridge
"The seriousness of playing, its about saying: the looseness of trying different things images- ideas. Its about not knowing what things mean in advanced. Its always kinda been in between what I thought I was doing that the real work has happened." - William Kentridge , William Kentridge: Anything is Possible (2010)
Home
The Artist
The Art
Videos
Source
link to my blog:
Art 106
Kentridge in his studio
Stereoscope
I am not me the horse is...
CAMERA
Installation View
william-Kentridge22.jpg
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