Zeno Writing
Print
2002 (made)
2002 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The work of white South African artist William Kentridge is rooted in his opposition to apartheid. In 2002 he made a series of prints based on the novel Confessions of Zeno (1923), by Italo Svevo. One of the earliest novels to be written as if from the psychiatrist’s couch, Confessions of Zeno manifests the guilt-ridden soul that Kentridge explores in earlier works addressing the apartheid regime. The novel centres on a middle-class businessman in Trieste in the years immediately before the First World War, reduced to bankruptcy when he goes into business with his feckless brother-in-law. This impending disaster echoes the wider political one, although much of the narrative revolves around the households of Zeno and his wife’s family.
In Kentridge’s series the ‘confessions’, which take the form of abstract but calligraphic lines, trail over the surface of the things described: bowler-hatted puppets (businessmen perhaps?) and weird megaphone-like instruments confront one another in empty landscapes; a lion stalks the bars of its cage. In this scene the furniture itself seems to have come alive, suggesting the powerful position that our homes and our domestic possessions hold in our lives.
In Kentridge’s series the ‘confessions’, which take the form of abstract but calligraphic lines, trail over the surface of the things described: bowler-hatted puppets (businessmen perhaps?) and weird megaphone-like instruments confront one another in empty landscapes; a lion stalks the bars of its cage. In this scene the furniture itself seems to have come alive, suggesting the powerful position that our homes and our domestic possessions hold in our lives.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Zeno Writing (series title) |
Materials and techniques | Photogravure etching and drypoint on paper |
Brief description | William Kentridge: plate from the suite 'Zeno Writing', 2002, based on the book 'Confessions of Zeno' by Italo Svevo. Photogravure, etching and drypoint |
Physical description | Scene in a room or on a stage? Three chairs and a small table. Chairs not square on the floor and two of them appear to have two legs off the floor; the legs of the third curved in a lively way. What appear to be ropes or strings hanging in loops over the front of the 'stage' and other lines drawn over the chairs, suggest writing over the main image, this enhanced by the linear patterns made by three candelabra suspended from the ceiling of the room. |
Dimensions |
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Production type | Limited edition |
Copy number | 23/30 |
Marks and inscriptions |
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Credit line | Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund |
Production | A talk on photogravure given by Randy Hemminghaus, master printer, at Witwatersrand University c.2002, to a group of local artists, inspired Kentridge to use the technique as the basis for the 'Zeno Writing' suite. Reason For Production: Retail |
Subjects depicted | |
Place depicted | |
Literary reference | Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo |
Summary | The work of white South African artist William Kentridge is rooted in his opposition to apartheid. In 2002 he made a series of prints based on the novel Confessions of Zeno (1923), by Italo Svevo. One of the earliest novels to be written as if from the psychiatrist’s couch, Confessions of Zeno manifests the guilt-ridden soul that Kentridge explores in earlier works addressing the apartheid regime. The novel centres on a middle-class businessman in Trieste in the years immediately before the First World War, reduced to bankruptcy when he goes into business with his feckless brother-in-law. This impending disaster echoes the wider political one, although much of the narrative revolves around the households of Zeno and his wife’s family. In Kentridge’s series the ‘confessions’, which take the form of abstract but calligraphic lines, trail over the surface of the things described: bowler-hatted puppets (businessmen perhaps?) and weird megaphone-like instruments confront one another in empty landscapes; a lion stalks the bars of its cage. In this scene the furniture itself seems to have come alive, suggesting the powerful position that our homes and our domestic possessions hold in our lives. |
Collection | |
Accession number | E.133-2005 |
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Record created | January 4, 2006 |
Record URL |
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