William Kentridge: Domestic Scenes

This book documents, for the first time, the entire 54 images—aswell as an additional 65 plate progressions not previously knownto exist—in William Kentridge’s important early series of etchingsand aquatints “Domestic Scenes” (1980). One of today’s mostrespected contemporary artists, Kentridge was only 25 yearsold and relatively unknown when he made these images whichare pivotal in how they shaped his thinking, studio practice andconceptual approach. Presenting a range of human interactionsin domestic environments and revealing influences from Matisseto Francis Bacon, from Giacomo Balla to Niki de Saint Phalle, theprints receive in this book fascinating new commentary fromKentridge, who shares his working methods as well as personalmemories of the prints’ subjects and creation. Framed bydetailed research by Warren Siebrits, the compiler of Kentridge’supcoming catalogue raisonné of prints and posters, DomesticScenes provides some of the earliest evidence of the artist“stalking the drawing”: returning to the etching plate time andagain to make additions and alterations.

I also think that I am now ready for some good etchingwork—one of the things I am good at is quick first-time-rightor throw-it-away work, and etching rather than painting willbe a way of working from this strength. -William Kentridge, December 1978