Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
For Universal Archive, South African artist William Kentridge (b. 1955) revists familiar personal iconography—coffee pots, typewriters, cats, trees, nudes, and other imagery—presenting an intimate thematic repertoire that appears in art and stage productions throughout the artist’s career. Based on ink sketches, the 75 linocut prints shift from identifiable subject matter to deconstructed images of abstract marks on dictionary and encyclopedia pages, forming juxtapositions that suggest skepticism about the creative process and knowledge construction.
Whether or not you go, A Universal Archive: William Kentridge as Printmaker is a unique and beautifully presented book including almost 100 prints from 1988 to the present, with a stress on experimental, collaborative and serial works. South African artist William Kentridge (born 1955) is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, and theatre and opera productions. He is also an innovative and prolific printmaker--of etchings, engravings, aquatints, silkscreens, linocuts and lithographs--often experimenting with challenging formats and combinations of printing techniques to create highly worked, intensely atmospheric imagery. His prints range in scale from intimate etchings and drypoints to linocuts on rice paper and canvas measuring over eight feet high and are reproduced on a variety of materials, a tactile approach which is echoed in the design and production of this volume. Kentridge’s distinctive use of light and shadow and silhouettes, his concern with memory and perspective, and his absorption in literary texts are all strongly in evidence throughout this book, which provides new insights into the working methods of this prolific artist.