William Kentridge. West Coast Series: Skurfberg. 2010. Sugarlift etching.
Edition of 30. 46 x 46cm.
These works relate to drawings that Kentridge made as labels for rare wines made by the Sadie family from vines, planted in around 1900 on the Cape West Coast of South Africa. The collection is called the Ouwingerdreeks (Old Vine Series). During the tour of the vineyards the artist learned some viticultural skills – principles of suckering, removing unwanted early-season growth in the remote old vineyard on the farm Voetpad on Skurfberg mountain.
Kentridge and the collaborating printmakers from DKW made use of delicate drypoint lines swirl through washes and splashes of pale grey spitbite aquatint, combined with the deep and solid marks of sugarlift aquatint and hardground etched lines. Handpainting, burnishing and attached fragile chine collé resolve the print