Exhibited

South African National Gallery, Contemporary South African Art 1985-1995 from the South African National Gallery Permanent Collection, 14 December 1996 to 31 March 1997, page 124 in the catalogue.

Iziko South African National Galley, Ink, Paper, Politics: The Agency of Print as Social Critique, Graphic works from the Iziko South African National Gallery Permanent Collection, 18 November 2014 to 10 February 2015.

Literature

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (ed.) (2006) William Kentridge Prints, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing. Page 34 and illustrated in colour on page 35.

The second position was 'art in a state of hope,' by which I referred to a kind of agitprop work I had been doing, in which the work was subordinate to a program known in advance; a Leninist approach to picture-making. (page 34)

Rosalind Krauss (2013) A Universal Archive: William Kentridge as Printmaker, London: Hayward Publishing. Illustrated in colour on page 34.

Dan Cameron (1999) William Kentridge, London: Phaidon Press. Pages 102-103 and illustrated in colour on page 103.

Artist's Writings: Art in a state of hope

Tatlin's Monument to the Third International (1919-20) is one of the greatest images of hope I know. I say image because although the monument existed as a model I know it only through photographs. These are enough. It is the project rather than the actual object that is moving. I imagine that the greying concrete pylons of the actual monument, a thousand feet high, would be monstrous. But there is an image of Tatlin and his assistants clambering around the model, huge enough itself, a hope and certainty that I can only envy. Such hope, particularly here and now, seems impossible. The failures of those hopes and ideals, their betrayals, are too powerful and too numerous. I cannot paint pictures of a future like that and believe in the pictures. Which may not be necessary. Good propaganda can come from craft and conscientiousness rather than conviction, although it is hard. In the few posters I have designed on request, irony (the last refuge of the petit bourgeoisie) creeps through, and passion is reduced to a bitter joke. Ultimately my belief in the democratic socialist revolution is tainted. Not by doubting its need or desirability, but because it seems unwarranted optimism to think it will occur. Even if it did I do not know how I would fit into it. Where does that leave me, with neither a belief in an attained (even partial) state of grace, nor with a belief in an immanent redemption here.