Head I, Four Paper Heads Series

Provenance

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

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.

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.

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.