William Kentridge

Goodman Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg/London

Acquired from the above by the present owner

A similar work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia (The Poynton Bequest 2012) and was included in their exhibition WILLIAM KENTRIDGE Drawn from Africa 17 Jan - 26 Jun 2016. In her catalogue essay, curator Jane Kinsman writes:

"From 1989 to 2003 William Kentridge created nine films about the life of Soho Eckstein, an industrialist and property developer living in contemporary South Africa. For the film Other faces 2011, the artist again returned to the fictional character of Eckstein for a film based on drawings he made over a twelve-month period. In the film we see Eckstein as a middle-aged figure dressed in a pinstriped suit, who on occasion looks remarkably like Kentridge (Eckstein's alter ego is Felix, a lover and poet, who also looks like the artist).

"This cinematic animation opens with a car accident, where Eckstein collides with the car of a black African preacher and an argument ensues between the two drivers. An angry crowd forms in response. The sequence of images that follows suggests something of what it was like to live in South Africa after apartheid was disbanded in 1994. The accident becomes a metaphor for the political turmoil that still remained despite the fact that racial segregation and white rule had legally ceased. The film is set in inner Johannesburg and the barren landscape that surrounds the city, including a decrepit drive-in theatre seen in Drawing for the film Other faces (healing to all in global), all adding to the sense of social disruption.

"Other faces is part recollection, part present day reality of the protagonist Eckstein. The film is sometimes stark and desolate, as shown in the scenes of the abandoned outskirts of the city or the scenes of the furious crowd in the Drawing for the film Other faces (protestors), a charcoal of 2011. Other images are poignant and tender, such as Eckstein's memories of his childhood, including the figure of his mother or his nanny. For the work Kentridge filmed a series of rich, textured charcoal drawings in stop action sequence – sometimes embellished with red pens and at other times rubbed out as the narrative ebbs and flows from past memories to contemporary events. The soundtrack was composed by musician Philip Miller.

"Drawing for the film Other faces (large landscape) is a large-scale charcoal pastel and pencil landscape related to the film. It subverts the tradition of landscape painting by artists such as Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven painters, who created idealised landscapes, editing out the incursions of modern life. Kentridge's depiction of Johannesburg and its outskirts is the antithesis of this approach.

At first glance, the artist has created a lyrical view of the countryside on the eastern plateau of South Africa, rich in lush foliage and flowing waterways. Yet hidden among the grasses and woodlands are the remnants of the abandoned mining industry. The sad history is barely perceptible, a shadow, scarcely a memory. But it remains. For Kentridge, this wasteland drawing is a metaphor for the destructive effect of apartheid on his homeland in both the apartheid era and in contemporary life."