Books “Writing the catalogue was truly one of the most enriching and rewarding experiences I have ever had. During it, my admiration for William’s genius only increased—the sheer profusion, creativity, and quality of his work across such a range of genres and media…I’m going to miss it now that it’s over.” STEPHEN CLINGMAN
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: LIBERATING VISION AND SIX MEDITATIONS H A R D BACK C ATA LO G U E BY STEPHEN CLINGMAN ROYAL AC ADEMY OF AR T S, 2022
Professor Stephen Clingman (BA 1977, BA Hons 1978), distinguished professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, offers a brilliant exposition of William Kentridge’s work in this catalogue which accompanies the major autumn 2022 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. According to the publisher, the catalogue “undertakes a series of enquiries, of walks around the artist and his practice, through the various layers and linkages, crossings and connections of his art…he considers Kentridge’s themes, explores them and moves by association to others. Along the way, overlaps, thought-collages, allusions and assemblages come together to create a connective, dimensional way of thinking inspired by Kentridge’s own habits of creation.” Clingman has taught at the University of Massachusetts since 1989, and was chair of the English 70 W I T S R E V I E W
Department from 1994 until 2000. His research and teaching fields include South African literature and politics, postcolonial fiction, transnational fiction, and twentieth-century and contemporary British fiction. He is also the award-winning author of Afrikaner Revolutionary: Bram Fischer (2013, Jacana). The catalogue is an apt collaboration, despite Clingman’s reservations, which he has admitted to WITSReview: “I have never worked as an art historian or critic, and realised at a certain point that I had to approach the project in my own way and from my own point of view.” The volume is punctuated by Clingman’s six meditations on the exhibition’s themes: Drawn through Time; The Enigmas of Soho; Shadows of the Past, Shadows of the Present; Dualities, or How I Did Not Become; Timespaces, or Two Dancers; and Coda: Vanishings.
