Strauss & co - 9 December 2021, Cape Town

ITEM NOTES An interest in optics and the construct of seeing informs William Kentridge’s experiments with stereoscopic vision, of which Table with Sparrow forms a part. Table with Sparrow translates the set of small photographic images inserted into a stereopticon, as seen in Kentridge’s earlier Double Vision (2007), into two largescale drawings forming a diptych and was subsequently made into an editioned work by the artist. A sense of contention and play is brought into the artist’s practice through the questioning of perception that Table with Sparrow proposes. It also harkens back to early experiments in binocular perception that found their way into the repertoire of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ARTIST BIO William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions. His method combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre, and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, yet maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty. Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Musée du Louvre in Paris, Whitechapel Gallery in London, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. He has participated a number of times in Documenta in Kassel (2012, 2002, 1997) and the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2005, 1999 and 1993). 13 William Kentridge SOUTH AFRICAN 1959– TableWith Sparrow (Left Hand)  2019 signed and numbered 25/25 in red conté in the margin, further signed, dated 2019, and inscribed ‘Left’ in the print digital print on Hahnemühle German Etching paper image size: 102 by 146 cm sheet size: 111,5 by 153 cm R200 000 – 300 000 PROVENANCE Kindly donated by the Artist and Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London. EXHIBITED Norval Foundation, Cape Town, William Kentridge: Why Should I Hesitate, Sculpture , 24 August 2019 to 27 July 2020. LITERATURE Karel Nel and Owen Martin (2019) William Kentridge: Why Should I Hesitate, Sculpture , Cape Town: Norval Foundation, illustrated on pages 196 and 197. BID 40