Nose 14

NOSE

Based on a drawing by Picasso, the double breast seen under the armpit. When drawn onto the plate, the condensed milk and Indian ink mix is the same tone for all sections of the drawing. The difference between the body and the head is only a question of time. The first bite of the aquatint—which gives the light grey body— took approximately four minutes. The black head was ‘bitten’ in the acid for about an hour. The white eye was protected from the acid by a permanent felt-tip marker. Initially I had thought The Nose would be contemplating Picasso’s odalisque. But this was not sufficient.

This text by William Kentridge appears alongside the illustration of this print in William Kentridge Nose: Thirty Etchings, edited by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen and published by David Krut Publishing in 2010.