Notes

‘The Ubu 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 [as in the present lot], 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 robe, 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. William Kentridge, quoted in Susan A Stewart and Kay Wilson (2006) William Kentridge Prints, Johannesburg; David Krut, page 66.

Literature

Rory Doepel (1997) Ubu: +/- 101: William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell, Johannesburg: The French Institute and The University of the Witwatersrand Art Galleries. Illustrated on page 25.

Mark Rosenthal (ed) (2009) K5 William Kentridge: Five Themes, New Haven: Yale University Press. Illustrated on page 136.

Susan A Stewart and Kay Wilson (2006) William Kentridge Prints, Johannesburg: David Krut. Illustrated on page 67.