Strauss & co - 20 May 2013, Johannesburg

228 326 William Joseph KENTRIDGE south african 1955– Drawing for Felix in Exile signed, dated ‘94 and inscribed with the artist’s working notes for the animated film charcoal and pastel 53 by 73,5 cm R400 000–600 000 notes Felix in Exile was the fifth of eight films that occupied William Kentridge between 1989 to 1999. Each film consisted of 30 to 40 drawings, each of which engaged editing, dissolving, erasing and overdrawing techniques not simply as a form of animation but as a conscious part of the artistic process. 1 In an introductory note to Felix In Exile , Kentridge writes, ‘In the same way that there is a human act of dismembering the past there is a natural process in the terrain through erosion, growth, dilapidation that also seeks to blot out events. In South Africa this process has other dimensions. The very term ‘new South Africa’ has within it the idea of a painting over the old, the natural process of dismembering, the naturalization of things new.’ 2 This work was used as the backdrop for the credits of the film – the final deserted landscape of the main protagonist Felix’s homeland. 1 http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/felix-in-exile / 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kentridge