William Kentridge's Research

 The suggestion to see William Kentridge's charcoal animations was very interesting. This is because in term 1 in the discipline of 2D 3D Media Process, in Basic Drawing using charcoal, I did research on this artist. At the time, I was concerned with charcoal drawings, because of the material we were working on. I went to review the life and work of this artist in a different perspective, seeing the charcoal animations. 

William Kentridge was born in 1955 in South Africa, in Johannesburg, where he lives and works. He is known for his illustrations, drawings, and animated films. (artnet, s.d.)

Kentridge, being South African, was expected to be influenced by apartheid policies, in this case, he was anti-apartheid (his father was an important anti-apartheid lawyer). (artnet, s.d.)

He graduated in political science and African studies at the University of Johannesburg and studied visual arts in Fine Arts at the Johannesburg Art Foundation. 

He is a very versatile artist. As Tone (2013) tells us «... he dedicated himself to the theater, acting and creating scenic creations in several productions. His involvement with theater and opera permeates his entire work and gives the performance character of his artistic production. » 

Artnet (s.d.) reports that in the 1980s he studied mime and theater. He was not a good actor and gave up. But this interest was fundamental to his work because it influenced his style, making a relationship between the film and the drawing. His drawings, using pastels and charcoal, are studies for animated films. He worked in films and series, with the role of Art Director. 

It presents an expressionist line. Sentiment plays a vital role in the narrative of your work. The social injustice that was happening in front of him in a country like South Africa, was an influence on his work. (Tone, 2013) His work had several influences: «His work was further inspired by artistic satirists, including Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879), Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828), and William Hogarth (British, 1697-1764). By the 1990s, Kentridge had established an international audience and reputation. » (artnet, s.d., para. 2) He has exhibited extensively around the world and received several awards, such as the Red Ribbon Award for Short Fiction. (Tone, 2013) 

His influences and his work show expressionist traits. In this post, I tried to understand his animation and how he could influence me or how I can improve in my work.

As suggested I went to view the following video:

(20) Automatic Writing - William Kentridge – YouTube

This is a 2003 video in which the words/letters are related to the images. According to Baraona (2010, para. 5) »Automatic writing was a common method used by the Dadaists and Surrealists' to produce poetry (write) or images (to draw).» 

The silhouette of Kentridge and his wife appear in this animation, in a movement that emerges from the words that are the background and become the figure and the figure becomes the background again. 

This animation, although not my style, showed me how the background (which seems to have a secondary role) can become a main element of the animation. On the other hand, it allowed me to better understand expressionism in animation. I think that the examples that I have observed, will allow me to modify some aspects in relation to my original plan. One of them is the characters. 

Another aspect that Kentridge places a lot of importance on animation is sound. All the films he made took into account soundtracks that give greater meaning to their narrative (Tone, 2013). 

This is an aspect that I have to think about and research further.

References:

Artnet (s.d.) William Kentridge. [online] Available from: William Kentridge Biography – William Kentridge on artnet [Accessed: 21/01/02]

Baraona, I. (2010) Willam Kentridge: “Automatic Writing” as na example of a peculiar technique for animation. [online] Available from: Isabel Baraona | Trabalho | Textos publicados | WILLIAM KENTRIDGE : "AUTOMATIC WRITING" [Accessed: 21/01/02]

HeavyArts9 (2008) Automatic Writing - William Kentridge [Youtube vídeo] Available at: ((20) Automatic Writing - William Kentridge – YouTube [Accessed 21/01/02]

Tone, W. (2013) William Kentridge: fortuna. Material didático. Programa Educativo Fundação Iberê Camargo. [online] Available from: Material-Didático_William-Kentridge-–-fortuna.pdf (iberecamargo.org.br) [Accessed: 21/01/02]