Notes

The present lot, from the series Four Paper Heads, is a sculptural, multi-faceted portrait that riffs off Pablo Picasso's Absinthe Drinker series from 1914. Having to some extent created Soho and Felix – two of his most prominent characters – in his own image, Head I shows the artist working with the idea of collating multiple personalities in a single moment, much like how the great Cubists presented on canvas multiple viewpoints at the same time.¹

^1. Mark Rosenthal (ed) (2009) William Kentridge: Five Themes, New Haven: Yale University Press, page 63.

Provenance

Strauss & Co, Cape Town, 16 February 2019, lot 55.

Literature

Warren Siebrits (2011) Aspects of South African Art II: 1910-2010, Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, another example from the edition illustrated in colour, unpaginated.

Lilian Tone (ed) (2013) William Kentridge: Fortuna, London: Thames & Hudson, another example from the edition illustrated in colour on pages 48 and 49.

Exhibited

Norval Foundation, Cape Town, Why Should I Hesitate: Sculpture, 24 August 2019 to 27 July 2020, another example from the edition exhibited and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue on page 210.