3rd Sep, 2020 20:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
154
William Kentridge (South Africa 1955-)
Scribble Cat
sugarlift aquatint, spitbite aquatint and drypoint etching with
Sold for R739,700
Estimated at R650,000 - R800,000
sugarlift aquatint, spitbite aquatint and drypoint etching with
(1)
sheet size: 102 × 180 cm combined
Notes:
William Kentridge’s complex print, Scribble Cat, is offered alongside one of its major sources of inspiration Cecil Skotnes’ Cat, produced fifty years before that. In a reflection on his lifelong association with prints and printmaking at a printmaking conference held in Cape Town in 2003, William Kentridge gave a charming account of the significance of Cecil Skotnes’ print of a cat, given to him as a child and which hung in his bedroom. He demonstrated the deep affect of Skotnes’ cat on him by showing several images and clips in which a cat appears in his work. Scribble Cat is undoubtedly one of Kentridge’s most impressive cats. It followed an earlier sculpture of a cat on a revolving base, resembling the technology Kentridge employed in 2008 for works such as construction for Return (Tenor), devised for the commission for La Fenice, Venice’s historic opera house.Like drawings Kentridge was making at the time, in which multiple fragments are pieced together to make a whole, Scribble Cat takes the form of a puzzle of overlaid pages. The diverse printing techniques across the different pieces are unified by the cat, and “the tension between fragmentation and coherence gives the print its taut, feline energy”.Cats have featured significantly in the artist’s oeuvre. Over many years Kentridge has drawn, sculpted and printed cats; two spiky steel cats stand as guardians atop his entrance gate and another above his studio door. Perhaps his most memorable cat, featured in the 1999 film, Stereoscope, has all the electrifying energy of Scribble Cat.
Emma Bedford
Sources:
[i] Sue Williamson, https://artthrob.co.za/03sept/diary.html, accessed 31 July 2019.
[ii] https://davidkrutprojects.com/artworks/8908/scribble-ca
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 3rd Sep, 2020
This Spring, Aspire Art Auctions broke new ground with a fresh, yet considered selection of artworks that is demographically more representative and reflects the spirit of current times. With a strong focus on South Africa, the sale also proudly represented artists from 10 African countries (Benin, DRC, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe) and international artists from Europe, the UK and USA.
A great highlight was Edoardo Villa’s monumental steel sculpture titled Traverse from 1957 which achieved R4,893,400 – an auction record for the artist. Other exceptional offerings included works by Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Peter Clarke and Nicholas Hlobo.
HIGHLIGHTS
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