To everyone who posted about Kentridge, 

Great observations and descriptions.  The power of your descriptions capture the power of Kentridge's mark!  Great job.

Robin

Lauren McWilliams- Kentridge

William Kentridge’s animation is interesting not only because of the unusual process, but in the way that his process further expresses and enhances his ideas.  His message becomes so much more powerful because of the way that the artwork is rendered.  Felix In Exile, stood out to me as a piece where the content and visual aesthetics worked dependently on one another. In this film, Kentridge deals a lot with the past and memories; as Felix observes his alter ego searching for her homeland he is drowned by memories, fear, and regret. The way that the drawings leave traces of themselves as Kentridge erases and readjusts the animation exaggerates this concept of past and present. With each new frame the previous one still has an effect on the viewer. Just as the drawings in Felix’s briefcase pile up, the layers of charcoal and erasure dominate and overwhelm the scene as well.  I feel that the success of Kentridge’s animation is a result of the way that he draws process and concept together.  His films provide commentary on subjects that are not that unusual, many artists draw upon politics and social conflict; however he portrays these issues on a different level. An artist may paint a picture that illustrates some of Kentridge’s same ideas but the paint would not contribute to the viewing experience as dramatically as Kentridge’s charcoal sequences.  Kentridge’s process alone tells a story and sends a message and this appeals to me as a very deep way to experience and create art. 

Hollis Daniels- Post on Kentridge

William Kentridge is notorious for his animated films using drawings to create an abstract and interesting videos. He erases objects in the videos to make them more captivating and unique. The videos are cool because they are so life-like, but all drawn.  Kentridge videos and films are highly influenced by political and social issues, he also randomly includes his self-portrait in his movies. Kentridge goes through a unique process to produce his films. He introduced succesive charcoal drawings , which are always stay on one sheet of paper. Kentridge just keeps tracing on his previous drawings, building up his videos with past actions on one sheet. Kentridge is now one of South America's best artists, he has produced extraordinary films that are meaningful with just charcoal. In his films, he has two major characters, Soho Eckstein and Felix Teitlebaum, both of them represent various aspects of emotional and political struggle.  He has reasons why he never uses a new sheet of paper, which is quite interesting. He never used a new sheet of paper because he believed that one should paint over the old, and keep changing things until it is correct, and stick with the same sheet, no matter how many mistakes, and keep correcting until things finally come together. This is a metaphor for the struggles and lifestyles of people who lived in South Africa at the time.  Kentridge is known for his films like " Felix in Exile", " Monument", "Johannesburg: 2nd Greatest City after Paris", and many more. Kentridge quotes," My drawings don't start with a 'beautiful mark', It has to be a mark of something out there in the world. It doesn't have to be an accurate drawing, but it has to stand for an observation, not something that is abstract, like an emotion." I personally think it is incredible how Kentridge uses charcoal and a handful of some paints to create such a moving and meaningful piece of artwork, that represents so much in South African culture and society. 

William Kentridge- Automatic Writing

Automatic Writing

Please post your responses on the main page --Also, if anyone would care to  post a videos of Kentridges work please do so.  Thanks.

Hi Everyone,

Please Wikipedia.com artist William Kentridge.  After reading about the artist then turn to YouTube.com.  There please find many of his videos posted.  After viewing the videos please choose the one or two that you feel are the most effective formally and conceptually.  Look for ways that he used perspective to construct his settings.  Please notice his line quality.  How does erasure work in his videos?  Any other critical observations?

Hope you enjoy,

Robin