Notes

In 2008, Kentridge was invited to makea short film to be projected on the fire screen of the Teatro La Fenice opera house in Venice. Working experimentally from drawings in his studio, Kentridge, together with sculptor Gerhard Marx, devised a series of seemingly abstract sculptures that when viewed from a particular angle by his film camera, achieved formal legibility and figural coherence. The present lot is a drawing produced in preparation for the creation of the sculpture Construction for Return (Coloratura) (2008) which features in the film. The idea for the project was a response to the absurdity of producing a film piece that would be viewed casually in anticipation of a theatrical event, amidst the discord of the orchestra tuning their instruments. ‘The chaos of the project is mirrored by the piece being about chaos, disintegration and regathering,’ stated Kentridge.¹ The logic of the rotating sculptures relies on ‘monocular vision,’ explained the artist, ‘because you have to see a three-dimensional object as a two-dimensional shape. So, it’s the opposite of Renaissance painting where you have a flat image trying to look three-dimensional.’² Drawing is central to Kentridge’s genrespanning practice, often providing the initial formal resolution for an idea. All Kentridge’s rotating sculptures began life as drawings pasted on his studio wall, which he and his collaborators iterated into solid forms. The present lot refers to moments of ‘fragmentation’ and ‘provisional coherence’ key to an appreciation of Kentridge’s rotating sculptures.³

¹ William Kentridge (2010) ‘Return’, Art21, 19 February: https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/williamkentridge-return-short/

² John Lloyd (2009) ‘Interview: William Kentridge atTeatro La Fenice’, Tate Etc, issue 15, Spring: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-15-spring-2009/ interview-william-kentridge-teatro-la-fenice

³ William Kentridge (2020) William Kentridge: Why Should I Hesitate: Sculpture, Cape Town & Cologne, Norval Foundation & Koenig Books. Page 102

Literature

William Kentridge, Francesca Pasini, Jane Taylor and Angela Vettese (2008). William Kentridge: (Repeat) From the Beginning. Vicenza: Charta Publishers, illustrated in colour on page 96.