Helene Love-Allotey
Head of Sale
Lot 9
William Kentridge
(South African, born 1955)
'Another Country' sheet size:64.2 x 112.7cm (25 1/4 x 44 3/8in); image size: 64.2 x 90.8cm (25 1/4 x 35 3/4in).
2 September 2020, 14:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$225,075 inc. premium
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William Kentridge (South African, born 1955)
'Another Country'
signed and dated 'KENTRIDGE 94' (lower right)
charcoal on wove paper
sheet size:64.2 x 112.7cm (25 1/4 x 44 3/8in); image size: 64.2 x 90.8cm (25 1/4 x 35 3/4in).
signed and dated 'KENTRIDGE 94' (lower right)
charcoal on wove paper
sheet size:64.2 x 112.7cm (25 1/4 x 44 3/8in); image size: 64.2 x 90.8cm (25 1/4 x 35 3/4in).
Footnotes
Provenance
A private collection, South Africa.
The iconic South African music group Mango Groove released their album 'Another Country' several months before South Africa's landmark 1994 general election, the first democratic election in the country's history.
The album was the band's artistic contribution to South Africa's crossover period from the apartheid regime to a new government. It was said at the time that the album drew the listener "away from the hurt and guilt to the dream, the promised South Africa
The song 'Another Country' was written in response to the Boipatong Massacre in June 1992 where forty-five township residents were killed by a raid instigated by the South African police. In the animation video for this track (at 59 secs) the scene cuts to a charcoal drawing of a city where protestors fill the streets. On one of buildings Kentridge's image appears of people who have been injured and killed during this struggle for freedom.
The choice of William Kentridge as the animator of the video for "Another Country" was inspired. He was at the height of his animation powers and this work was made in the same year (1994) as his celebrated fifth film "Felix in Exile", Kentridge has commented that this film was:
"made at the time just before the first general election in South Africa, and questioned the way in which the people who had died on the journey to this new dispensation would be remembered'
A very similar statement could be made by the artist about the current drawing.