William Kentridge, born 1955, South Africa Search this
Medium:
Hardground, softground, aquatint, drypoint, and etching on paper
Dimensions:
H x W: 35.6 x 48.3 cm (14 x 19 in.)
Type:
Print
Geography:
South Africa
Date:
1996-1997
Series:
A/P
Label Text:
In 1989 Kentridge began making short animated films by photographing his charcoal drawings with a video camera and altering them in minute ways to move the story forward. Through a vast range of creative media, Kentridge constructs moral allegories out of lines and erasure to explore themes of love and betrayal, oppression and violence, death and regeneration.
This highly skilled set of eight etchings represents one element of an unprecedented production of interconnected works in the late 1990s based on Alfred Jarry's infamous despot character, Ubu Roi. Invited to participate in an exhibition entitled, "Ubu+ 100," Kentridge produced a whole series of narratives about the character, fitting the iconic villain into a South African context, in etchings, animated films, a series of larger drawings, a theater production by the Handspring Puppet Company, and a multimedia installation work.
Jarry's farce of 1896, designed for marionettes, caused an uproar in Paris and helped shape the progress of avant-garde theater in the 20th century. As a notorious buffooned, lampooned character, Ubu Roi has provided a versatile figure for artists throughout the century to apply to local histories and personalities. Kentridge splits the Ubu character in two (a similar format to his ongoing narrative feud between Felix and Soho in his other works), suggesting with the different forms a rift between the public and private self. The absurd but devastating despot is pictured in chalk white outline, wielding his sword and pontificating through a megaphone, while the nude figure is shown trapped within, subsumed by his outer persona but constantly trying to rid or cleanse himself of his public actions.
This set of prints represents a very important period of Kentridge's oeuvre, documenting not only the breadth but also the profundity of his practice with which he is able to build upon his own artistry and comment on local events, while addressing the broader history of 20th-century artistry. The cross-cultural themes of the Ubu Roi and Kentridge's abilities to make his own the historical and aesthetic manifestations of the European avant-garde attest to his importance as a world-renowned artist. His comments upon his country's political trials and tribulations are subtle yet powerful as they deftly incorporate the South African situation in a broader human narrative.
Description:
A suite of eight etchings on paper depicting the escapades of the tyrant despot Ubu roi. The artist portrays the ruler as a split personality, the larger buffooned cartoon figure, outlined here in chalk white of the greedy, glutinous king, and a naked male drawn in an illusionistic manner and modeled on the artist's own form, perhaps representing the alter-ego private self. The dual figures are shown acting out a number of scenes from a play narrative (although not in any particular order), the chalk outline always gregarious and public in nature, the human form often trying to cleanse or distance himself from his other half. Action within the scenes is set against a black wall and upon a roughly hewn wooden stage.
Exhibition History:
Insights, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 27 to November 28, 2004
Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 18, 2002-January 5, 2003
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