David Krut Publishing is delighted to announce the publication of William Kentridge Nose. This book accompanies the launch of a suite of thirty new limited-edition prints by Kentridge called ‘Nose’, the culmination of a four-year collaboration between the artist and David Krut Print Workshop.

In December 2006, Jillian Ross began her collaboration with William Kentridge on a series of prints that was to elaborate on Kentridge’s work on the Shostakovich opera The Nose, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, New York, to premiere in March 2010. Shostakovich’s opera is based on one of the most famous stories in Russian literature, Nikolai Gogol’s The Nose, published in 1837. The story follows the adventures of the pompous government official Kovalyov who wakes up one day to find that his nose has left his face and gone walking around St Petersburg.

In his interpretation of Gogol and Shostakovich, Kentridge has projected the story forward to the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Russian avant-garde, and then into the twentieth century to include allusions to Stalin’s purges of the 1930s. But he has also cast his eye back to consider some of the literary influences on Gogol such as Lawrence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and even Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Drawing on these and other texts, including excerpts from Russian newspapers, clips from Russian films of the twenties and thirties, pages from Russian encyclopaedias, and parts of a transcript of a 1937 meeting of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party in which the theoretician Nikolai Bukharin is being interrogated, Kentridge is creating not only his opera production but several other works.

The prints, now called simply ‘Nose’, were imagined as a journey not only with Kovalyov, but through Russian history. They reflect on music, ballet, the history of Western art (Russian and otherwise) and the various fortunes of the Communist party in its Soviet and South African incarnations.

‘Nose’ is now a suite of thirty prints, each measuring roughly 15 x 20 cm (5 x 8 in). The prints explore a number of techniques but rely primarily on Kentridge’s strong drypoint marks, softened by sugarlift aquatint and punctuated, in several plates, by a strong Constructivist red. Each plate is engraved with a number signalling its place in the series. There are fifty prints in each edition and they have been editioned by Jillian Ross, Niall Bingham and Mlungisi Kongisa.

For additional information, please contact us:

Johannesburg: 140 Jan Smuts Avenue  t: +27 (0)11 334 1209  e:  david@davidkrut.com

Cape Town: Montebello Design Centre  t: +27 (0)21 685 0676  e: alastair@davidkrut.com

More on William Kentridge

• Nose prints
• William Kentridge at David Krut Print Workshop
• Flute
• William Kentridge Prints
• Thinking Aloud
• Everyone Their Own Projector
• 'I am not me, the horse is not mine'
• Five Themes
• William Kentridge FIFA 2010 Poster

David Krut Publishing is delighted to announce the publication of this major book on Handspring Puppet Company.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A PREVIEW OF THIS BOOK

In 2007, Handspring Puppet Company’s War Horse, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and commissioned by the National Theatre in London, won Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards. The extraordinary success of this production has drawn attention to Handspring’s decades-long experiments and innovations in the art of puppetry and their remarkable contribution to theatre in South Africa.

Handspring Puppet Company was founded by Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Jill Joubert and Jon Weinberg in 1981. They have produced eleven plays and two operas, collaborated with many different artists―including Mali’s Sogolon Puppet Troupe and South African artist William Kentridge―and opened in over 200 venues in South Africa and abroad. They have won numerous accolades, including the Olivier Award for War Horse at the National Theatre in London.

Handspring Puppet Company is the first full-length book on Handspring published in South Africa. It explores their work in adult puppet theatre, from Episodes of an Easter Rising (1985) to War Horse, providing insights into their philosophy of puppetry and their technical innovations. It is richly illustrated with images from the Handspring archive and includes essays by theatre practitioners and writers who have collaborated with the company over the years.

Handspring Puppet Company

Edited by Jane Taylor, with essays by Jane Taylor, Adrienne Sichel, Adrian Kohler, William Kentridge, Gerhard Marx, Lesego Rampolokeng and Basil Jones

Book designed by Ellen Papciak-Rose

Project Manager Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

David Krut Publishing

Publishing date: 30 October 2009

In support of this project, William Kentridge has made two limited-edition prints based on his work with Handspring.

Handspring I (Man) Handspring II (Horse)

These are available from David Krut Projects. Contact Johannesburg on +27 (0)11 334 1209, david@davidkrut.com or Genevieve Lowe in New York on +1 212 255 3094, genevieve@davidkrut.com.

Written by graphic designer Michael MacGarry, and featuring the work of leading design professionals, and targeted at designers, A Primer in South African Graphic Design features design fundamentals and principles; practical advice and guidance; designing for and within the local context; example of work by designers; Q & A with experienced local design professionals; and a glossary of highly-relevant resources and information.

The book provides an intelligent balance of educational material relevant to design students and practical content to help young professionals embark on their careers, whilst providing sufficiently advanced material and content to appeal to mid-level and experienced designers and allied industry practitioners alike.

SKILL SET: Knowledge Resource and Educational Series is a new multi-volume series for specialised design disciplines. Using a practicable, outcomes-based approach, Skill Set will provide instruction in various fields of design, including graphic design, stage design, fashion design and industrial design - serving as a resource for both amateurs and professionals alike. Though neither a textbook nor a design manual, the book will help develop specific skills, intelligent design solutions, and effective project outcomes. It will be a resource on the fundamental principles of graphic design, a source of inspirations and ideas, a business tool for designers, and a much-needed critical showcase of local graphic design.

The Skill Set series will feature content relevant to both a local and international context, as well as commentary and work by leading local design professionals. The series is aimed at a broad audience that includes learners at secondary schools and tertiary institutions, as well as emerging and experienced professionals.

This first title will be officially launched at the Design Indaba 2009.

Author Michael MacGarry is a graphic designer, writer and artist based in Johannesburg. He began his design career in Dublin and London before returning to South Africa to work with The Trinity Session as designer, copywriter, and researcher. He is currently Senior Designer at Fever Identity Design. MacGarry has an MFA from the University of the Witwatersrand, and is also a visual artist who has exhibited locally and internationally. He is owner of www.alltheorynopractice.com and is a founder member of art-collective AVANT CAR GUARD. As a writer, MacGarry has been published in several local magazines, and recently co-published, along with Lloyd Gedye, a limited-edition magazine titled The Pavement Special.

OTHER DESIGN BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM OUR BOOKSTORES

Design Books distributed by David Krut Publishing

Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, New York
Design for the Other 90%
Piranesi as Designer
Design Life Now

TATE Publications, London
Albers and Moholy-Nagy: From Bauhaus to the New World
Pop Art
Julian Opie
Internet Art
The Stage of Drawing

Further Titles available from our Bookstores

10 x SA Fashion Week
An A – Z of Type Designers
Craft Art in South Africa
Design Like You Give a Damn
Design Thinking
Design, Writing, Research
The Designer’s Desktop Manual
Inspiring Designers: A Sourcebook
Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design
Modern Architecture and Design
Notes on Book Design
Ogilvy on Advertising
Points for Departure
Thinking with Type
Understanding Design

Universal Principles of Design
The Visual Dictionary of Fashion Design
Wired: Contemporary Zulu Telephone Wire Basket

REVIEWS OF SKILL SET 1: Graphic Design

Mail and Guardian

Designing Ways Magazine

Compendium Of TAXI Art Books Educational Supplements.

This Compendium brings together all thirteen supplements from the TAXI Art Books series on contemporary South African artists. Each chapter contains an introduction to the artist, worksheets and conceptual and practical projects, fact files, glossaries and bibliography. Learners and teachers are encouraged to draw on thier own resources of imagination and experience and, through discussion, collaboration and reflection, understand the artist's work and try a variety of art-making exercises. The Compendium includes valuable material on how to conduct research, write art essays, avoid plagiarism, keep a visual diary and do art presentations.

See also