Strauss & co - 11 November 2019, Johannesburg

47 37 William Kentridge SOUTH AFRICAN 1955– Ubu Sleeper signed and numbered 12/50 in white chalk in the margin  aquatint and drypoint etching with white ink 94 by 192 cm R400 000 – 600 000 ‘The Ubu etchings were the starting point for a theatre production, Ubu & The Truth Commission (1997). The Sleeper prints were made after the theatre production was completed. I had worked on a series of messy drawings of a naked man, sometimes enclosed by the white Ubu line drawing [as in the present lot], trying to get some of the feel of the theatre production in them. With the first set of drypoints I had used a thumbprint and printed the heel of my hand to suggest the flesh texture. With the large drawings one has to pull shape and texture into the drawing on a larger scale. I wheeled a bicycle across the paper, hit it with a charcoal-impregnated silk robe, invited children and cats to walk over it, spattered it freely with pigment. The Sleeper prints used a range of materials and objects placed in soft ground to try to effect the same damage upon the paper.’ 1. William Kentridge, quoted in Susan A Stewart and Kay Wilson (2006) William Kentridge Prints , Johannesburg; David Krut, page 66. LITERATURE Rory Doepel (1997) Ubu: +/- 101: William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell, Johannesburg: The French Institute and The University of the Witwatersrand Art Galleries. Illustrated on page 25. Mark Rosenthal (ed) (2009) K5 William Kentridge: Five Themes , New Haven: Yale University Press. Illustrated on page 136. Susan A Stewart and Kay Wilson (2006) William Kentridge Prints , Johannesburg: David Krut. Illustrated on page 67.