WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, Muizenberg

111pp., b/w & colour illus., hardback, Steidl, Göttingen, 2025

ISBN: 9783969995198

In 1976, just months after the Soweto Uprising, William Kentridge created images of South Africa’s Jewish community enjoying the sun on what was then the “whites-only” Muizenberg beach in Cape Town.

The book includes all twelve plates in the series as well as a sketchbook from Kentridge’s archive documenting his preparatory drawings for the prints. It features five cover variations, each with a different tipped-in image from the series. Each final plate state is accompanied by commentary from Kentridge on his working methods and personal memories of the prints’ subjects. 

Also included is a conversation between Kentridge and longtime friend Timothy James, in which they discuss the making of these prints.

The book forms part of the William Kentridge catalogue raisonné of prints and posters, ongoing since 2020, authored and researched by Warren Siebrits. This series of prints was documented for the first time in Kentridge’s Catalogue Raisonné Volume 1. Prints and Posters 1974–1990 (2022).

William Kentridge (b. 1955, Johannesburg) is internationally acclaimed for his artworks, theater and opera productions. His method combines drawing and erasing, tearing, gestural painting, collage, weaving, casting, writing, film, performance, music, theater and collaborative practices.

South African art authority and researcher Warren Siebrits is compiling a five-volume catalogue raisonné of William Kentridge’s prints and posters.