WILLIAM KENTRIDGE | SCRIBBLE CAT (CHASING YOUR OWN TAIL III)

Private Collection, South Africa (acquired directly from the artist)

Private Collection, UK

Born in 1955, in Johannesburg, South Africa, William Kentridge is best known for his cross-fertilization of mediums, including; drawings, theatre productions and films. Innovative in his approach, the focal points of his artistic practice are identity and concerns of immense inequity in post-apartheid South Africa.

Since 2001, Kentridge has produced a series of tapestries consisting of drawings in which shadowy figures are conjured from ripped construction paper and are collaged onto web-like background of nineteenth-century atlas maps. To transform these drawings and collages into tapestry, Kentridge works in conjunction with Johannesburg-based weaver, Marguerite Stephens (Stephens Tapestry Studio), a frequent collaborator for over twenty years, a relationship which has resulted in over forty tapestries. The process of creating these tapestries include; designing cartoons from enlarged photographs of the drawings and hand-pick dyes to colour the locally spun mohair. The weaving process gives the collages a visual energy emphasising the tapestries’ aptitudes for complexity, colour and scale.

The Scribble Cat is an embroidered tapestry portraying large, dark silhouettes against texts from books. Kentridge initially created a small-scale drawing and collage (number I, 2010) from his cat sculptures, based on the blue cat which appears in his animated film, Stereoscope (1999). Shortly after, he made a large painting on canvas (number II, 2011). This is particularly exceptional for Kentridge, given that he has only made a few canvas paintings in his career. This canvas served as a moquette for the tapestry, hence the weaving is number III. Both the painting and drawing were included in Other Faces exhibition at Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg in 2011.

Today, William Kentridge is recognised as a leading contemporary artist and his works are exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Goetz Collection in Munich. Most recently in 2019, Kentridge’s works are part of two major survey shows including William Kentridge: A Poem That Is Not Our Own, Kunstmuseum, Basel and his largest exhibition Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work & Why Should I Hesitate: Sculpture hosted simultaneously at Zeitz MOCAA and Norval Foundation, Cape Town.