Walking Man (Primary Title)
William Kentridge, South African, born 1955 (Artist)
I have never tried to make illustrations of apartheid, but the drawings and the films are certainly spawned by, and feed off, the brutalized society left in its wake. I am interested in a political art . . . an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain endings . . . in which optimism is kept in check and nihilism kept at bay. —William Kentridge
Kentridge is known internationally for handmade animated films based on his charcoal drawings. Kentridge has also made prints since the beginning of his career. The stark contrast and strong cuts and gouges of Walking Man, a linocut, recall Northern Renaissance and German Expressionist woodcut prints.
Kentridge sets the striding figure in a barren industrial landscape that suggests the outskirts of his native Johannesburg. He offers few clues about the figure’s race or social status, although the branches sprouting from the man’s head and hands suggest transformation, perhaps reflecting the transitional state of South African society.
William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, May 30 - July 14, 2000
[1] Accessioned November 16, 2000.
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