Modern and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale

Live Virtual Auction, 1 April 2025

Modern and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale

Current Bid

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Lot 243
  • William Kentridge; Sleeper I
  • William Kentridge; Sleeper I


Lot Estimate
ZAR 600 000 - 900 000
Current Bid
Starting at ZAR 500 000
Location
Cape Town
Shipping
Condition Report
May include additional detailed images
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About this Item

South African 1955-
Sleeper I

signed, dated '97 and numbered 1/30 in pencil in the margin

drypoint etching and aquatint on paper
image size: 97 by 193cm; 106,5 by 201,5 by 6cm including frame

Literature

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (ed) (2006) William Kentridge: Prints, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing, another example from the edition illustrated in black and white on page 66.

Notes

"The Ubu Tells the Truth etchings were the starting point for a theatre production Ubu & the Truth Commission (1997). The Sleeper prints were made after the theatre production was completed. I had worked on a series of messy drawings of a naked man, sometimes enclosed by the white Ubu line drawing, trying to get some of the feel of the theatre production in them. With the first set of drypoints I had used a thumbprint and printed the heel of my hand to suggest the flesh texture. With the large drawings one has to pull shape and texture into the drawing on a larger scale. I wheeled a bicycle across the paper, hit it with a charcoal-impregnated silk rope, invited children and cats to walk over it, spattered it freely with pigment. The Sleeper prints used a range of materials and objects placed in soft ground to try to effect the same damage upon the paper."1

1 Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (ed) (2006) William Kentridge: Prints, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing, page 66.

Provenance

Private Collection.

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Lot 243