Notes

The present lot, from the series Four Paper Heads, is a sculptural, multi-faceted portrait that riffs off Pablo Picasso’s Absinthe Drinker series from 1914.1 Having to some extent created Soho and Felix – two of his most prominent characters – in his own image, Head I shows the artist working with the idea of collating multiple personalities in a single moment, much like how the great Cubists presented on canvas multiple viewpoints at the same time.

1. Mark Rosenthal (ed.) (2009) William Kentridge: Five Themes, New Haven: Yale University Press. Page 63.

Literature

Warren Siebrits. (2011) Aspects of South African Art II: 1910–2010, Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits. Another example from the edition is illustrated in colour, unpaginated.

Lilian Tone. (ed.) (2013) William Kentridge: Fortuna, London: Thames & Hudson. Another example from the edition is illustrated in colour on pages 48 and 49.