Kim Berman
A WALK THROUGH THE TREES www.investeccapetownartfair.co.za
A
rtist Proof Studio has the privilege of launching the production of a remarkable new etching by William Kentridge, adapted from a series of immense ink wash drawings of trees, made over the past year to make a ‘forest’. It will be on exhibition at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, February 18-20, 2022. You Who Never Arrived is a coffee-lift etching on handmade Phumani paper mounted on raw cotton cloth in the technique and style of the monumental series of Triumphs and Laments which was published by APS between 2016 – 2022. It folds as an accordion book into a clamshell box. When opened and hung, it has clear relationship to some of the majestic ink wash tree drawings which will be exhibited together in one gallery at the London Royal Academy in 2022, to form a forest. You Who Never Arrived is the first tree-print of its kind on this scale, comprising 12 copper plates; printed in a similar ‘tiled’ arrangements as the original drawing, and will be an edition of 20 on Phumani sisal and cotton handmade paper. The open size is 175cm x 186 cm and the folded boxed size is 46cm x 65cm. The technical virtuosity of this work presents as majestically as Kentridge’s remarkable ink-wash drawings, but will be available to his collectors in a limited edition. And like many of his tree drawings, You Who Never Arrived is resplendent and evocative of both our current moment in time and our history. Trees are timeless, they are witnesses to joys and atrocities. They are our legacy and our future. William Kentridge hand-painting the joins of the printed plates on cloth to complete the final work.
36
