Notes

William Kentridge is globally acclaimed as one of today’s leading contemporary artists. While he works across an astonishing array of practices including performance, theatre, film, opera, and printmaking, it is his mastery of the medium of charcoal that has inspired a widespread re-evaluation of this ancient medium.

Zeno Landscape II is a charcoal drawing that forms one of the closing images to the film component of Zeno at 4am. This remarkable production, in which actors and singers on stage interacted with shadow procession puppets and film projections, was performed in Belgium, France, the United States and South Africa between 2001 and 2003. Based on Italo Svevo’s 1923 novel Confessions of Zeno, it is set in Trieste in northern Italy at the turn of the twentieth century, against a backdrop of rapid industrialisation and war. The narrative centres on an individual thwarted by extreme social transformation and his own ennui.

The quality of Kentridge’s mark-making evokes a range of responses. Charcoal lines are feathery and delicate, as if alluding to partial truths that can never fully describe experience. Calligraphic script suggests a historical dimension while fluttering smoke and scrolling landscapes evoke the uncertainty of the modern world. Fig A stands as an example or a marker of evidence that draws attention to a scene. All is open-ended. With an appealing lyricism, the artist captures the elusive quality of thoughts and the swirling dilemmas that engage the central character.

Literature

This drawing was used on the invitation to the exhibition.