Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: The Flood

Artist. William Kentridge Title. The Flood Date. 2016-2017

Dimensions. 181 x 213 cm Edition. 12

Medium. Relief, printed from 11 woodblocks on Somerset Velvet, Soft White, 300 gsm Final work comprised of 15 individual sheets adhered by 30 aluminum pins

William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: The Flood David Krut Workshop (DKW)

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

David Krut Workshop (DKW)

The Making of The Flood 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.

Work began on the second woodcut in the series in July 2016, titled The Flood.

Whereas the drawing for Mantegna was based on a series of paintings, the image of The Flood draws its inspiration from a photograph found online of Romans seeking refuge from the devastating effects of the Tiber River flood that ravaged Rome in 1937. The finished print is 1.8 x 2.1 m and is printed from 11 woodblocks. It is comprised of 15 sheets adhered by 30 aluminum pins.

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, titled Mantegna (see insert).

Preparatory drawing of the Tiber River flood in 1937 for the Triumphs and Laments frieze 1

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William Kentridge Triumphs and Laments Woodcuts: The Flood | 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

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

The drawing of The Flood by Kentridge, July 2016

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

Experiments with Wood 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.

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.’

Drawing and Scale 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.

For The Flood Kentridge produced a drawing to scale of roughly two metres square. 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. Although the two drawings in the series were very similar in scale, they were very different in their creation.

Whereas the drawing for Mantegna was painted in India ink on similar printmaking paper to that which is used for printing the edition, the image for The Flood was created on small sheets of used ledger paper stuck together with large pieces of tape; Kentridge further drew onto these with charcoal and ink. The ledger paper was an entirely different sized sheet that had columns of handwritten text. These charcoal marks, the tape, the smallest squiggle of a line as well as the handwritten columns were added by the artist as a challenge for the carvers. Given that this was to be the continuation of a series, it gave Kentridge and the DKW team a chance to explore ways of pushing the medium.

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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 continue from the previous image were all carefully considered. Once this was decided, the question then became how to create the woodblocks to suit each image.

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 as well as in the gestural features of the figures. 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 Flood were Panga Panga, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Saligna, and African Walnut. Panga Panga and Ash are both heavilygrained, dense woods whilst Poplar and Maple are lesser-grained woods. Saligna and African Walnut both hold different amounts of grain that were liked by Kentridge and are medium-density so easy to carve. Sections of Ash and African Walnut were used to accentuate gesture in the faces of the figures, dissecting them at angles, while Maple and Poplar allowed moments of soft, subtle blacks.

Saligna provided a rippled surface in the water.

Some of the grain was so heavy and needed to be made softer, so the team solved this challenge by filling the targeted grains. To re-create the feel of a photograph, the blocks were left with an unusually large border around the image to allow for a blackened edge to be used or discarded.

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

Paper

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

Carving

Assembly

Using the guidelines that Kentridge provided, the carvers set about recreating the artist’s vision for the woodcut. All elements of the drawing were included: the charcoal marks, the loose tabs of tape, and the finest lines found on the used ledger paper. 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 are15 sheets of paper in the final The Flood print. All were printed from six 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. Pieces were also attached to the work by Kentridge in the last stages of production and allowed for overlaps of image and movement. Torn pieces from one of the blocks used in Mantegna were repeated here.

The Flood was produced over four months from 26 July to 28 November 2016. The collaborators were Master Printer Jillian Ross; carvers and printers Sbongiseni Khulu and Chad Cordeiro, with assistance from Pebofatso Mokoena; and wood expert Alan Epstein.

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.

In 2017 The Flood will be exhibited at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in New York, David Krut Projects in New York, the Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris, the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town, and the FNB Joburg Art Fair.

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

The final print of The Flood, November 2016

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William Kentridge The Flood, 2016-2017

Medium. Relief, printed from 11 woodblocks on Somerset Velvet, Soft White, 300 gsm Final work comprised of 15 individual sheets adhered by 30 aluminum pins Wood used. Panga Panga, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Saligna, and African Walnut Dimensions. 181 x 213 cm (edges irregular) Edition. 12

Signed bottom right, piece #9 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 Production Assistants: Pebofatso Mokoena (carving), Ryn Caddick and Joanna Cortez (production), 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 Projects 142A Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg +27 (0)11 447 0627 info-jhb@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, Cape Town Montebello Design Centre, 31 Newlands Avenue, Cape Town +27 (0)21 685 0676 dkct@davidkrut.com

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DKW

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