Modern and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale

Live Virtual Auction, 1 April 2025

Modern and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale
  • William Kentridge; The Battle Between Yes and No
  • William Kentridge; The Battle Between Yes and No
  • William Kentridge; The Battle Between Yes and No


Lot Estimate
ZAR 600 000 - 900 000

About this Item

South African 1955-
The Battle Between Yes and No

signed and numbered 13/15 in pencil and embossed with the Caversham Press chopmark in the margin

colour screenprint on paper
image size: 147 by 95cm; sheet size: 161,5 by 109cm; 165 by 114,5 by 5cm including frame

Exhibited

Sanlam Art Gallery, Cape Town, Re Mmôgô (We are Together), 15 February to 26 May 2003, another example from the edition exhibited.

The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, William Kentridge: Five Themes, 24 February to 12 May 2010, another example from the edition exhibited.

Marian Goodman Gallery, London, William Kentridge 1984-1992, 2021.

Literature

Kendell Geers (1997) Contemporary South African Art: The Gencor Collection, Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers, another example from the edition illustrated in colour on page 69.

Johans Borman and Warren Siebrits (20010) Aspects of South African Art, Johannesburg: Johans Borman and Warren Siebrits, another example from the edition illustrated in colour on page 41.

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (2006) Wiliiam Kentridge Prints, New York: David Krut Projects, another example from the edition illustrated in colour on page 36.

Notes

Other examples from the edition are in the MTN, Sanlam and Museum of Modern Art collections.

"This monumental print was made in 1989, the year the South African government announced a program of social and political reform, and the print conveys a sense of political antagonism through figures whose tongues are entangled. The work marks a shift in Kentridge's screenprinting from theatre posters and protest work to fine art, thought the brown background of this image recalls the inexpensive brown paper he used for his earliest posters"1

1 (2025) Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, William Kentridge The Battle Between Yes and No, online, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100557, accessed 10 March 2025.

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