Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees

Artist. William Kentridge Title. Refugees (diptych) Date. 2018 - 2019

Dimensions. 188 x 350 cm Edition. 12

Medium. Relief, printed from 26 woodblocks on Somerset Velvet, Soft White, 300 gsm Final work comprised of 77 individual sheets adhered by 136 aluminum pins

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) 1 God’s Opinion is Unknown 2 Leaning on Air David Krut Workshop (DKW)

William Kentridge

Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

1 God’s Opinion is Unknown 2 Leaning on Air David Krut Workshop (DKW)

In early 2016 William Kentridge was at work on a monumental frieze to be installed along the banks of Rome’s Tiber River in April of the same year. The 550 meter work would be stenciled onto the wall of the river from Ponte Sisto to Ponte Mazzini. It would be called Triumphs and Laments and would consist of scenes from the cultural and political history of Rome from drawings that Kentridge had been preparing in his studio in Johannesburg for a number of years.

editioning the first two woodcuts in the series, Mantegna and The Flood. In January 2017 work commenced on the third image in the series, Lampedusa, and by October 2017 the fourth woodcut, That which I do not remember, was complete. (See insert for details.)

Work began on the next two images simultaneously in October 2018. This is the first work in the series created in two parts (a diptych). Collectively, the diptych is titled

In January 2016 Kentridge also began discussions with a long-time collaborator, Master Printer Jillian Ross of David Krut Workshop (DKW), about using these drawings as the basis for a series of large woodcut prints. Ross and her assistants Sbongiseni Khulu and Chad Cordeiro began extensive tests on a grouping of three figures from the frieze as this would be their first woodcut project with Kentridge. Over the course of 2016, the printing team worked on creating and Preparatory drawing of Refugees diptych for the Triumphs and Laments frieze 1

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com 2

Refugees. If referring to one part separate from the whole, the single figure (the fifth woodcut) is titled God’s Opinion is Unknown.

The group of figures (the sixth woodcut) is titled Leaning on Air. Both titles derive from the text used within each woodcut.

Kentridge’s reference images for this entire series were drawn from moments in Roman history and mixed with current world events.

The image chosen for Mantegna is based on a group of nine paintings by Andrea Mantegna in 1484 and entitled Triumphs of Caesar; The Flood is based upon a photograph of Romans seeking refuge from the devastating flood that ravaged Rome in 1937; Lampedusa was from a photograph taken in 2013 of a group of widows who had lost their husbands in a shipwreck off the island of Lampedusa; and lastly, That which I do not remember is a collective black mass that as Kentridge states is not only “about a personal loss of memory, [but also] about the things that society wants us to forget, a sort of ‘fill in what you want’ for what we do not want to remember.”

The Refugees diptych is adapted from a scene showing the forgiveness of debts, from the Plutei of Trajan (first half of the second century CE, marble, Curia Julia) in Rome as well as influenced by a 2012 newspaper photograph of migrants from Rwanda. The focus here has been placed on the large loads that they carry; ‘they’ could be seen in any number of photographs and could represent

migrants from any number of countries.

The finished Refugees diptych measures approximately 1.8 x 3.5 m side-by-side and is made from 26 woodblocks. It is comprised of 77 individual sheets adhered by 136 aluminum pins. Individually, God’s Opinion is Unknown is printed from 12 woodblocks, comprised of 31 individual sheets, and adhered by 51 aluminum pins. Leaning on Air is printed from 16 woodblocks, comprised of 46 individual sheets, and adhered by 85 aluminum pins. The number of woodblocks do not tally as the individual prints share two woodblocks. [All of the six woodcuts in the series share at least two blocks, and sometimes three. One block printed is made solely of wood grain texture with no carved areas and is used for areas of black collage.

The other block is the opposite; it is fully textured carved marks with slight text. It is also used for collaged pieces to allow for a sense of movement, without a sense of repetition, because of the way it is carved.]

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

Top: Detail from the Triumphs and Laments frieze installed along the banks of Rome’s Tiber River, April 2016 Bottom: The forgiveness of debts from the Plutei of Trajan (first half of the second century CE, marble, Curia Julia) in Rome

3

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

4

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

Detail from the Triumphs and Laments frieze installed along the banks of Rome’s Tiber River, April 2016

The drawing of Refugees diptych by Kentridge, October

5

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com 6

Experiments with Wood

Drawing and Scale

The initial arduous process of recreating the Kentridge drawing in wood presented the printing team at DKW with a unique set of technical challenges in the first print of the series. Ross wanted to experiment with multiple wood types to achieve a variety in woodgrain and printed mark. Before settling on the size of the work, the printers tested a wide range of papers and timbers. Wood expert Alan Epstein assisted them by building woodblocks from multiple timbers, using thick veneers from the middle sections of the tree and reinforcing the blocks to prevent warping.

The scale of the series had been carefully deliberated over in the first woodcut, Mantegna.

Given that the reference images of the frieze along the Tiber River are ten metres high, the DKW team decided to push the boundaries of the woodcut medium and work as large as possible for the entire series. Kentridge thus produced a drawing for Mantegna of two square metres from which the printers would work.

Ross advised her team of carvers to experiment as much as possible with different tools and mark making ‘to allow for potentially strange and surprising results to emerge in order to help fully appreciate the possibilities of the material.’

For Refugees Kentridge produced a drawing to scale of roughly two by four meters. It is the largest drawing produced for this series of woodcuts. Since the initial drawing was too large for the printing press to accommodate the size, it was decided that the entire series of prints would have to be an assemblage of paper sheets that would fit together like a puzzle. For this final work in the series, the last decision to make was whether to keep the image as one or split it into two parts that would be read as one.

The second, third, and fourth woodcuts, The Flood, Lampedusa, and That which I do not remember were all made on accountant’s ledger paper. Refugees is similar to the first woodcut, Mantegna, in that it was drawn on Hahnemühle, Natural White, 300 gsm paper. The sheets were overlapped and adhered together to form the base of the drawing; Kentridge further drew onto these with India ink, charcoal, and red pencil; later adding on pieces of text that read “God’s Opinion is Unknown” and “The Pool Ahead is not to be Trusted.” [Both phrases are taken from Sol T. Plaatje’s Sechuana Proverbs (1916) that contains 732 Setswana

proverbs, their translations, and their ‘European equivalents.’ Both texts are also found in Kentridge’s theatre production, The Head and the Load from 2018.]

Given that this was to be the continuation of a series, there are similarities found in Kentridge’s approach to creating his drawings; however, he provides new challenges for the DKW team with each new print. For Refugees the challenges were no longer carving challenges as found in previous woodcuts, but rather, the new challenges of working on a split image, using additional types of woodgrains, and finding many grainier areas in the wood pieces. Multiple test blocks had been created at the onset of the project in 2016 and had not been used for previous woodcuts. Kentridge and the DKW team decided to use them as the starting point for Refugees and because the work is meant to be viewed as a whole, the printers carried the timbers throughout the work.

Traditionally, woodcuts are printed on thin Japanese paper upon which the grain of the wood can be exposed with relative ease.

Kentridge’s initial drawing of the series was done on Hahnemühle—a thick paper traditionally used to print etchings—that proved too soft and malleable for an assembled print.

Three hundred gram Somerset Velvet, Soft White paper was selected for its rigidity and overlaying possibilities. Decisions of how the paper would overlap, whether the prints would be printed to the edge, and how they would relate to the previous images were all carefully considered in creating each print of the series.

Once this was decided, the question then became how to create the woodblocks to suit each image.

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

Paper

7

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com 8

Woodgrain Many types of wood were chosen for their grain effects as well as their density. Soft woods produced dark sections in printed form and allowed for easier carving, while more heavilygrained hard woods allowed for expressive gesture in both the carved mark and the printed sections. An integral design element is found in the angles of both the blocks and the paper. With Refugees Kentridge provided the DKW team with a sketch that outlined the timber direction he would like used.

Each timber the DKW team chose was placed according to Kentridge’s sketches, thus both very large and strangely-shaped woodblocks were created. Working closely with Kentridge, the printers discussed and elaborated multiple printing options. The blocks were created section by section, week by week, to allow for an understanding of the printed result.

The woods selected for the diptych were Panga Panga, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Saligna, African Walnut, Kiaat, Beech, and White Oak. Panga Panga, Ash, White Oak, and Beech are all heavilygrained, dense woods. Saligna, African Walnut, and Ash hold different amounts of grain that were liked by Kentridge. They are medium-density and directionally easy to carve while Poplar and Maple are lesser-grained woods and print a soft and subtle black. Each type of wood was placed in an area to suit the specifics of the image. White Oak has a wide, flakey, and inconsistent grain and was used for areas in God’s Opinion is Unknown to accentuate movement down the figure’s back. In contrast to this, Maple and Poplar were used

down the front of the figure to create shadow as well as a range of detailed carving possibilities which allow moments of soft, subtle blacks.

In Leaning on Air multiple timbers were used to accentuate or push back the gestures in the faces of the figures, from heavy-grained Panga Panga, Ash, and White Oak to lesser-grained Maple and Kiaat. Each wood was chosen and placed in a certain direction. Some of the edges of wood dissected each figure at different angles: some strange, some subtle, some changing the way we look at how the figures are moving together.

Additional lines were created by the woodblock edges and by the hard and soft paper edges.

Assembly

Using the guidelines that Kentridge provided, the carvers set about recreating the artist’s vision for the woodcut. Carvers were asked to rotate the blocks between them every three minutes when carving to prevent a particular carver’s mark becoming dominant, and they were instructed to follow the angles provided by Kentridge in drawn form or the angles found in the woodblocks themselves.

Pins were used for the final assembly of the work and to ensure that each sheet rests correctly on top of the next. Guidelines were provided on a map made on acetate and in an instruction manual.

There are 77 sheets of paper in the final Refugees diptych. All were printed from nine types of wood timbers. The DKW team worked to ensure no technical restrictions existed to limit the artist’s working process as some sheets were cut at sharp angles, others torn. For this print Kentridge used more than 22 torn pieces that come from two of the blocks used in Mantegna, one torn piece from Lampedusa, and another 27 torn pieces from woodgrain test blocks. In addition, he uses four pieces repeating the phrase “Leaning on Air.” The elaborate layering of these torn sheets above the heads of the figures add extra weight to the heavy loads they are carrying.

These pieces were attached to the work by Kentridge in the last stages of production and allowed for overlaps of image.

The final result makes reference to the reverse graffiti technique used in Triumphs and Laments.

In the frieze the erased biological patina from the natural stone wall eventually comes through into the image, and in the print the natural grain of each wood timber is an important part of the work.

Both prints for the diptych, Refugees, were produced over six months from 23 October 2018 to 18 April 2019. The collaborators were Master Printer Jillian Ross; carvers and printers Sbongiseni Khulu, Chad Cordeiro and Sarah Hunkin, with assistance from Pebofatso Mokoena, Diego Silands, and Lisa Cloete; and wood expert Alan Epstein.

In 2019 Refugees will be exhibited for the first time on William Kentridge’s solo exhibition, A Poem that is not our Own, at the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland.

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

Carving

9

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

10

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: Refugees (diptych) | David Krut Workshop (DKW) jill@davidkrut.com

The final print of Refugees diptych, April 2019

11

William Kentridge

Refugees (diptych), 2018-2019 This diptych is collectively titled Refugees and measures approximately 188 x 350cm side by side.

Made from 26 woodblocks, 77 individual sheets and 136 aluminum pins.

God’s Opinion is Unknown, 2018-2019 Medium. Relief, printed from 12 woodblocks on Somerset Velvet, Soft White, 300 gsm Final work comprised of 31 individual sheets adhered by 51 aluminum pins Wood used. Panga Panga, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Saligna, African Walnut, Kiaat, Beech and White Oak. Dimensions. 188 x 103 cm (edges irregular) Edition. 12 Signed bottom right, piece #4 Numbered and chop mark bottom left, piece #1 Leaning on Air, 2018-2019 Medium. Relief, printed from 16 woodblocks on Somerset Velvet, Soft White, 300 gsm Final work comprised of 46 individual sheets adhered by 51 aluminum pins Wood used. Panga Panga, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Saligna, African Walnut, Kiaat, Beech and White Oak. Dimensions. 188 x 103 cm (edges irregular) Edition. 12 Signed bottom right, piece #4 Numbered and chop mark bottom left, piece #1 Published by David Krut Printed at David Krut Workshop (DKW) Printers: Master Printer Jillian Ross, Sbongiseni Khulu, Chad Cordeiro and Sarah Hunkin --This is not exactly the same as above Production Assistants:, Lisa Cloete, Pebofatso Mokoena and Diego Silands (carving); Alan Epstein (carpentry); Roxy Kaczmarek (post-production) For queries contact Jillian Ross jill@davidkrut.com www.davidkrut.com

David Krut Projects New York 526 West 26th Street, #816 Chelsea, New York +1 212 255 3094 info@davidkrut.com

David Krut Workshop (DKW) Arts on Main, 264 Fox Street, City and Suburban, Johannesburg +27 (0)11 334 1209 aom@davidkrut.com

–

–

David Krut Projects 142A Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg +27 (0)11 880 6368 info-jhb@davidkrut.com –

DKW