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25 of 1,327

William Kentridge

(South African, born 1955)

Scribble Cat

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Object Details

Artist

William Kentridge

Date

2010

Medium

Aquatint and drypoint, printed from six plates, with hand-painting Edition 5/30

Dimensions

Image: 32 11/16 × 64 inches (83 × 162.6 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired through the generosity of Harold Tanner, Class of 1952, and Nicki Tanner

Object
Number

2011.002

A cat is a line, a dog is a dot. The principle of the cat is its spine. Draw any line, add some fur,(…)

A cat is a line, a dog is a dot. The principle of the cat is its spine. Draw any line, add some fur, some ears and whiskers, and you have a cat…. In working with puppets, you can take a feather boa, put a tennis ball at one end, two sticks to support and manipulate the boa, and you have a cat that can sidle, rub itself against your legs, turn in on itself. Shake one hand, and the cat’s hips twitch before making a leap.—Kentridge, Six Drawing Lessons (2014)This is Scribble Cat—twisting, hunching, hunting, the spine the pivot of its activity (indeed, a manipulated feather boa). The staccato marks that make up the body, with transparent sections allowing a view to the background, emphasize the feline’s movement as it cautiously places its feet, its gimlet eyes assessing potential predators. Although not sequential like a film, the composition is almost cinematic; its six overlapping plates provide momentum and movement, like a flipbook. This is a scruffy cat, a survivor, a poster child for a homeless cat always on the move. Homely yet charmingly seductive, its outsized dimensions serve to make all these characteristics inescapable. (“Imprint/ In Print,” curated by Nancy E. Green with assistance from Christian Waibel ’17 and presented at the Johnson Museum August 8 – December 20, 2015)

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