Viewing William Kentridge’s prints on exhibit at David Krut Projects Gallery in Johannesburg feels like going through the artist’s shortened memoir

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

Viewing the art works of world renowned and celebrated South African multi-0disciplinary artists William Kentridge currently on at David Krut Project Gallery as it opened on Saturday, 18 November, 2022, is almost akin to  a  shorted visual mini-memoir of the artist’s journey in the past two decades.

The works all in prints show the artist’s work practice, whether he is drawing in his studios or shooting his highly regarded filmic works. The works in display are also a landmark in that they capture the first time when Kentridge started working with David Krut Print Workshop in Johannesburg around the year 2000.

The works in display are a collaborative effort between Kentridge and the printmakers that forms a solid team of highly experienced production professionals at David Krut Work Shop. All in all four printmakers worked on these works to produce these eye catching prints.

“We started working on these prints in the year 2020, coincidentally when Covid-19 had just hit and the world, including South Africa was in lockdown.  And most of the communication was done through Zoom, between the different print makers and David as well. Fortunately for me because I do not live that far from the David Projects Print Workshop in Maboneng, I was therefore able to go and work there alone.” Sbongiseni Khulu one of the four printmakers who worked on the prints on four different studios scattered around the world, in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Canada told CITYLIFE/ARTS on Saturday November 19 at the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition William Kentridge: Studio Life Gravures at the David Krut Gallery in Parkwood, Johannesburg, 142A Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, is running until February 2023.

 Essentially this new series of gravure editions by William Kentridge, is produced in collaboration with the David Krut Workshop (DKW) in South Africa and Jillian Ross Print (JRP) in Canada.

This exhibition presents two bodies of work created through the gravure process. Studio Life is a series of twelve photogravures, featuring the artist at work in his studio, created over two years. The second series resonates with images in Kentridge’s current exhibition at The Royal Academy in London, where he is recognized as an Honorary Royal Academician. The works presented in this exhibition have been developed as part of a long-distance collaboration with the David Krut Workshop and Jillian Ross to create a body of work that defies geographical limitations.

This is an exhibition worth visiting.