Notes

This work was produced in the same year that Kentridge received the Rembrandt Gold Medal at the Cape Town Triennial. He also held a solo exhibition entitled Five Gouache Collage Heads at the Newtown Gallery in Johannesburg and participated in two group shows – Little Morals, Taking Liberties Gallery, Durban (with Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell) and Gala, Association of Art, Bellville.

Iris was created by tearing flat shapes out of sheets of paper that had been pre-painted with single colours of high quality pigment that the artist had acquired in Europe. The torn pieces were collaged onto the grey sheet, providing a background from which to build up the image with various shades of green, blue and purple in pre-prepared shapes. Finally, he drew on top of the collage to articulate the finer details of the flower. At the time, Kentridge was making a series of drawings of various themes he perceived to be difficult to draw – the iris is a notoriously difficult subject to portray.