Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art

Live Auction, 20 May 2019

Evening Sale

Sold for

ZAR 199 150
Lot 285
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three
  • William Kentridge; Russian Fragments, three


Lot Estimate
ZAR 120 000 - 160 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 199 150

About this Item

South African 1955-
Russian Fragments, three
each drawing signed
collage and mixed media
each 38 by 28,5cm

Notes

When a journalist once asked William Kentridge why he prefers drawing as the main medium of his artistic process, he replied: ‘Speed’. The artist added that he preferred drawing because painting comes to be about colour or about paint, which are not his main interests in art. ‘I can think with charcoal’ he said.1 Drawing is thinking, in other words.

Kentridge’s favourite Russian writer seems to be Gogol, whose short story, The Nose (1928), he has used as inspiration for many works, including the Shostakovich opera he directed for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In the seven drawings of the present Lot, Kentridge is thinking about other Russian writers apart from Gogol. These drawings subsequently formed the basis for the screenprint edition the artist published in 1989 (Lot 149).

1. Leora Maltz-Leca (2018) William Kentridge: Process as Metaphor and other Doubtful Enterprises. Oakland: University of California Press, page 200.

View all William Kentridge lots for sale in this auction


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