William Kentridge [Hardcover]

ARI Sitas (Author), Dan Cameron (Author), Neal Benezra (Author), Lynne Cooke (Author), Staci Boris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

William Kentridge is an exhibition catalogue focusing on the acclaimed films, drawings, and theatrical productions of this important contemporary South African artist. Kentridge's work explores the complex and often violent history of his native South Africa, and considers the effects its past will have on its future. The exhibition will present eleven of Kentridge's powerful and intensely complex animated films. Approximately forty large-scale charcoal drawings, many used in the making of the films, will be shown alongside the film projections.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The visceral work of native South African William Kentridge is steeped in the history and culture of his uneasy homeland. Until the mid 1990s, Kentridge was known primarily in South Africa alone, but he has since attracted considerable interest worldwide. This book, which accompanies the first survey exhibition of his work to tour the United States, consists of in-depth essays, a personal interview, and more than 60 pages of well-produced plates. Kentridge has worked on animated films, in theater productions, and in printmaking, but all of his powerful art is deeply rooted in drawing highly expressive charcoal renderings of dark, uncomfortable images that are both serious and ironic. This volume shares images and ideas with two earlier monographs on Kentridge: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev's William Kentridge (Soci?t? des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 1998) and Dan Cameron & others' William Kentridge (Phaidon, 1999). Kentridge is an important voice in art and its expression of social and human issues. Most academic art collections should own either this book or one of the previous publications. Drew Harrington, Pacific Univ. Lib., Forest Grove, OR
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

Examining the black and white animated films of William Kentridge, this volume discusses the political and philosophical dimensions of drawing, a term the artist applies equally to his works on paper, film and theatre productions. It surveys Kentridge's work within a broad historical and geographic context of politicised art practices while analyzing the formal innovations of his animation techniques. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810942283
• ISBN-13: 978-0810942288
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 10.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,129,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a very interesting artist, September 17, 2002

By 

jym davis (greensboro NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: William Kentridge (Hardcover)

I leave off a "star" only because viewing Kentridge's drawings can not substitute the experience of viewing his films. Indeed, looking the charcoal drawings I wonder at what stage of the sequence it is in. Is this the last step in the drawing? Looking at a drawing outside of its time base can also be a positive. I love searching the surface for smudge marks and erased hands and arms. His drawings end up being a record of movement (something that most single drawings fail to capture). For anyone who doesn't know, by the way, Kentridge animates his charcoal drawings using filmic stop motion techniques. The results are amazing. Anyone interested in drawing and painting, the birth of early film, and South African Politics: here is your artist.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Catalog of an Incredible Exhibition, October 12, 2002

By 

alan_in_la "alan_in_la" (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: William Kentridge (Hardcover)

William Kentridge is a white South African born in 1955. He is best known for animations, based on large charcoal paintings, which have as their subject the complexity of living a meaningful life in the warped society of South Africa.

Kentridge makes the films by working on the charcoal paintings, then clicking the film camera one frame at a time. He then walks back to the painting and works on it, before exposing another twenty-fifth of a second.

Kentridge is articulate and interesting and has established himself as a great artist in the tradition of Hogarth, Daumier and the German expressionists. His exhibition, which closed here in Los Angeles last week, was breathtaking. This book is the catalog of that exhibition.