William Kentridge - Let Me Live Again

William Kentridge is an artist recognised for his own specific creative approach, in which he combines a wide range of media. His installation Notes Towards a Model Opera garnered critical acclaim both for his innovative work with the media and for the way he used the installation to communicate disturbing, societal issues both of his time and beyond.

The origin of Let Me Live Again can be traced back to his Drawings for Projection work. The artist creates a charcoal drawing on individual sheets of paper, which he then erases and transforms into a unique, complex drawing. He records the entire process as well as all the changes that happen over time using a stop motion camera in order to create a time-lapse video. After slightly adjusting the drawing, he approaches the camera and begins the precise process of monitoring the drawing and adjusting it to the image. The film from Drawings for Projection, which forms a part of the multimedia installation Notes Towards a Model Opera, became the photographic basis for the creation of Let Me Live Again, a unique photo-gravure created by William Kentridge exclusively for the Kunsthalle Praha Design Shop on the occasion of the exhibition KINETISMUS: 100 Years of Electricity in Art.

TThese graphic sheets come in a limited edition of 50, of which only 40 have been released for sale. The delivery option is in-store pick-up only. The frame is not included.

If you’re interested in a specific print number from the series, please contact us in advance to see if it’s still available or add your preferred number in the comments section of your order. Member discount does not apply.

Product information

Artist: William Kentridge
Printing technique: Photogravure
Year: 2022
Edition of: 50 prints
Photogravure size with white borders: 44 × 54 cm
Photogravure size: 28 × 42,3 cm

William Kentridge

Throughout his work, this South African artist weaves together a wide range of media, including film, drawing, music, dance, shadow music, personal notes, printed materials, and clippings. He often touches on both the history of film and the social wounds that humanity has suffered in the not so distant past. If you happened to pay us a visit for our inaugural exhibition, "Kinetismus: 100 Years of Electricity in Art," you certainly must have drawn into the three-channel video installation by William Kentridge, which was waiting for you on the ground floor at the beginning of the exhibition. The installation "Notes Towards a Model Opera" was created in light of growing Chinese influence in Africa and interconnects their parallel history of socialism. In Kentridge's works, the principle of kinetic art, thus, applies not only to the movement of the image, but also to movement in the historical and political sense and to the concept of the world as a process in constant, unpredictable movement.

Photogravure

Photogravure, also known as heliogravure, is a graphic technique of intaglio printing. A copper plate is used for printing, which is "grained" using bitumen or rosin grit. It then covers the light with a sensitive gelatine that has been exposed to exposure through a film positive. During this process, the melting temperature of the gelatine is changed by the action of light through film and the desired image is etched into the copper plate in the subsequent etching baths. The printing ink is then rubbed into the etched plate and then printed on paper. Photogravure is a time-consuming, labourious, and costly process that flourished in the 19th century. Few people dare to do it today, which is why the Let Me Live Again print is a rarity.