Strauss & co - 20 May 2013, Johannesburg

208 306 William Joseph KENTRIDGE south african 1955– Reeds 1996 signed, dated ‘96 and numbered II/X etching, aquatint and drypoint on hand-painted paper with further hand work in red and white pastel sheet size: 115 by 157 cm R350 000–450 000 literature Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn (ed.). William Kentridge Prints . David Krut Publishing, Johannesburg, 2006, illustrated in colour on pages 54–55 notes ‘After the theatre production Faustus in Africa! I made a series of drawings of ‘colonial landscapes,’ for which I used engravings from accounts of European explorers to Africa as the source for a visual language for the drawings. I was interested partly in the translations, the temporal and geographic dislocations, that happen in the journey from explorers’sketches to the vision of Africa elaborated as these sketches were translated by professional engravers in London. These images then returned to South Africa, where they appeared in the second-hand bookshops of Johannesburg. Reeds was derived from a detail of one such engraving.’ 1 1. Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn (ed.). William Kentridge Prints . David Krut Publishing, Johannesburg, 2006, page 54