colour linocuts

Artwork date: 1977
Signature details: each signed, dated and numbered 5 in pencil in the margin
Literature: Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. (ed.) (2006). William Kentridge: Prints. Johannesburg and Iowa: David Krut Publishing, three prints from the series (1976 to 1977) illustrated on pp.22–23. Kentridge, Matthew. (2015). The SOHO Chronicles: 10 Films by William Kentridge. London: Seagull Books, the series mentioned on p.57: ’I had done drawings of people on the beach at Muizenberg in my first year of university (1974) and this was an extension of those images.’

(5)

sheet size: 24.5 x 21 cm each

Notes:

This series of five prints by William Kentridge from the late 1970s presents an exciting opportunity for the serious collector to acquire some of the artist’s rarest and most influential early works. They are uncatalogued, but clearly part of the wider series of Muizenberg prints, some of which are catalogued. Intriguingly, these prints have a key influence on the later development of Kentridge’s seminal Soho Eckstein character. Three works from the very early Muizenberg series of prints (1976–1977) are illustrated in the book William Kentridge: Prints (2006), on pages 22 and 23. Given that the works on auction are five different prints, there must be at least 8 in the series, but the final number is unclear. All are linocuts, other than one colour etching and aquatint, and all were printed by Kentridge himself.The three that are catalogued in the book were from incomplete editions, and were printed on at least two kinds of paper (Mulberry paper and also newsprint), even within the same image run. The five works on auction were therefore not found for the exhibition catalogued in the book, and are uncatalogued themselves. This indicates how rare the works are, and how incomplete the records were from that time. One of the catalogued works is a black and white family group portrait which has the date 1933 in the image, and the colour one is an image of 3 people on a beach. The text that accompanies the works on the pages reads: ‘The man in the deck chair wearing a three-piece suit and Homberg (sic) was my grandfather on holiday at the South African coastal resort of Muizenberg, in Cape Town. As a child, I had been struck by this photograph which depicted such an alien world. Decades later when I had been working on films showing the character Soho Eckstein wearing his pinstriped suit under all circumstances, I realised that this photo had been the young boys in the print are my father and uncle. […]The man in his pinstriped suit in Muizenberg does another circle in my animated film Tide Table, made in 2003’. (2006:22–33) To this day it seems the artist is also uncertain how many prints were made of these works and even exactly how many images were made as prints. What we do know is that the five prints on offer have not been seen in a long while and represent a rare opportunity for collectors.

Neil Dundas/James Sey

Sources:

Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. (ed.) (2006). William Kentridge: Prints. Johannesburg and
Grinnell, Iowa: David Krut and Grinnell College.