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Up Towards The Daylight: A Conversation on the Work of William Kentridge with Judy Hecker, Jillian Ross, and Phil Sanders

Saturday, February 17th, 2024

4:00PM ET

Two large-scale works by William Kentridge, The Old Gods Have Retired and The Flood, on view as a special project at the 2024 IFPDA Fair, serve as a jumping off point for conversation on the decades-long dedication to printmaking by Kentridge, who will be featured in a new video interview with Phil Sanders.

Kentridge’s works are as visually and physically layered as the human narratives influencing their meaning, weaving together contemporary and historic political and social themes, often using his native South Africa as a stand in for universal struggles for self determination.

Judy Hecker, an early supporter of Kentridge’s work, authored Trace (MoMA, 2010), part catalog and part artist book, as an accompaniment to the presentation of William Kentridge: Five Themes at MoMA -- the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s career presented in New York. Hecker currently serves as Executive Director of Print Center New York.

Jillian Ross is a collaborative master printer based in Saskatoon, Canada. Ross began working at the David Krut Workshop (Johannesburg, South Africa) in 2003 where she became one of William Kentridge’s primary print collaborators, completing some of Kentridge’s most ambitious print projects including: The Universal Archive, the Triumphs and Laments woodcut series, and most recently the Studio Life photogravures. Ross was responsible for implementing the two works on view, loaned by David Krut.

Sanders has been involved with the David Krut Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa since 2008 where he has served as an advisor to many of the monumental projects published with Kentridge. Remembering is the Effort, a catalog raisonné of the works of Kentridge published by David Krut over the past 30 years, authored by Phil Sanders and Jacqueline Flint, is due out this fall. Sanders authored Prints and Their Makers, winner of the 2021 IFPDA Book Award.

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