William Kentridge: Thoughts on Looking at Art

I remember the first time that I saw a painting in a museum that mesmerized me. It was a Van Gogh self-portrait with acidic greens vibrating on the canvas to the point of screaming out his pain. I had seen this image reproduced in dozens of books, and we had talked about it in art history class. But when I encountered it hanging on the wall of a museum it stopped me in my tracks. I think I must have stood there for at least twenty minutes staring at it. There is no way to explain this in a slide lecture, and there is no way of knowing what images will evoke this type of a response or why. To really understand art, and artists, it is imperative to look at the actual art.

William Kentridge recently had a one-person show at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth and when I first encountered the work; my response was similar to my encounter with Van Gogh’s painting. I was visiting friends in Fort Worth, and although I must confess that I had never heard of Kentridge, I make it a point to go to every show that Michael Auping the Chief Curator installs. I googled and searched You Tube for Kentridge before going and thought I knew something about his work. But I was not prepared for what I found: large scale video installations were behind partitions and drawings from the videos were installed on the outer walls. His drawings alone are world class museum quality work, but what he does with them in his videos is incredible. How can I even explain what a large scale projection of one of his videos is like, let alone describe the experience of seeing seven of them running simultaneously in the same room. Did I have a favorite? Well it would be either the Mozart “Magic Flute” theater installation complete with robots on tracks that run across the stage, the install in the room behind that with seven separate videos running depicting the cultural history of post-revolutionary Russia, or maybe it was that odd piece projected from above, spinning, and reflected onto a polished cylinder (embedded video above).

On the way home, I called all my friends and told them to go. I posted it on Facebook. I arranged a trip with my colleagues for one last look. We spent the weekend at the exhibit. Victoria Taylor-Gore, Chair of Visual Arts, Amarillo College, even went back on Sunday and has the distinction of being the last person in the museum at closing time on the last day of the show. She did not get back to Amarillo until after midnight. It was that good.

William Kentridge’s work is featured in the first segment of Art: 21 this season in a section dealing with compassion in art. It is fascinating to watch him construct frames for his films and listen to him discuss the process. This segment will be broadcast on October 7, and I highly recommend watching it.

Viewing art is crucial to understanding why an artist is significant. Reproductions rarely do images justice; they lack the magnitude, the mark of the artist’s hand, and the experience of the encounter. Some people go to the mountains for vacations; I plan trips to big cities to see art. But I also look at local art. Two monthly local events worth mentioning are First Friday at the Sunset Center, and Third Thursday at the Amarillo Museum of Art. These are both fun events that combine socializing and culture which is always a good mixture. They are also free and kid-friendly.