Important South African and International Art, Decorative Arts & Jewellery

Live Auction, 16 October 2017

Day Sale

Sold for

ZAR 56 840
Lot 534
  • William Kentridge; Scribe
  • William Kentridge; Scribe


Lot Estimate
ZAR 50 000 - 70 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 56 840

About this Item

South African 1955-
Scribe
executed in 2011

signed, numbered 7/40 in pencil and embossed with the David Krut Workshop chop mark in the margin

drypoint etching
sheet size: 44 by 39cm; image size: 25 by 19,5cm

Notes

"The Scribe print came from William Kentridge's work on the project he did for the Louvre last year, Carnets d'Egypte (Egyptian Sketchbooks). For this exhibition, Kentridge made 16 short films that were shown in the Egyptian Collection wing of the Louvre. Some of the images that Kentridge made, both in films and in drawings, were of the scribe. Here the artist puts himself in the scene, adopting the position of the scribe, while he recited Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous poem Ozymandias - an ode to Ramses II. One of the short films, titled Scribe, involves the silent interaction between two scribes, both Kentridge as the scribe. From this project, the scribe was adapted into other work - this small etching, some photogravures by master printmaker Randy Hemminghaus, as well as some charcoal drawings on multiple pages. Ancient Egypt is a theme that first appeared in Kentridge's work in 2004, in preparation for his staging of Mozart's comic opera, The Magic Flute."

Juliet White. (2011) William Kentridge: Scribe: A new print, [Online], Available: davidkrutprojects.com/7771/wk-scribe [1 February 2017].

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