William Kentridge (1955) - Domestic Scenes

Domestic Scenes" (1980) belongs to the earliest and artistically central body of works by William Kentridge, and marks the start of a sustained engagement with power, memory, and political reality that would shape his entire later oeuvre. Works from this formative phase are today especially sought after, as they document the origin of his international significance.

The present exemplar is exceptional in several respects: it is an exhibition poster from a very small original edition, and it has been hand-signed by the artist and individually retouched with pastel. Through these interventions, each sheet acquires a unique character.

Given that it originated more than 40 years ago and the fragile materiality of such works, it is to be expected that only a few comparable copies still exist—many will have been lost or are no longer in circulation.

In this combination—early work, signature, and pronounced hand-coloring—the sheet belongs to the rarest works by Kentridge available on the market.

With “Domestic Scenes” from 1980, William Kentridge thus presents one of the earliest and at the same time most historically significant works of his oeuvre. The present sheet is a rare, hand-colored, and hand-signed exhibition poster from the period of the series’ development—a remarkable example of Kentridge’s transition from printed graphics to a drawn original work.

Artist: William Kentridge
Title: Domestic Scenes
Year: 1980/81
Technique: Offset/screen print, hand-colored with colored pencils
Signature: hand-signed
Format: approx. 50 × 60 cm
Feature: individual hand-coloring – each copy is a unique piece within the edition

Description, History and Meaning

The series “Domestic Scenes” was created in 1980 in Johannesburg and belongs to the earliest closed groups of Kentridge’s works. In a total of 54 sheets, the artist investigates seemingly private spaces of everyday life—and uncovers them as sites deeply rooted in social power structures.

Against the backdrop of the South African apartheid regime, the works address the complex relationships between white households and black domestic workers. Intimacy, dependency, and violence are inextricably intertwined. Kentridge succeeds in making political reality visible not through overt accusation but through subtle, often disturbing visual constellations.

The present poster occupies a special position within this body of work. Unlike purely reproductive prints, it was manually overworked by the artist with colored pencils. This gestural intervention transforms the sheet from a display carrier into an autonomous artistic work. The overpaintings give the composition an immediate, physical presence and bring the work close to Kentridge’s drawing-centered medium.

At the same time, the work already points to central themes that would shape the artist’s entire later oeuvre: memory, guilt, power, and the fragility of historical narratives. “Domestic Scenes” is therefore today regarded as a key work that laid the foundation for Kentridge’s international significance.

William Kentridge (born 1955 in Johannesburg) is one of the most internationally significant contemporary artists. He became well known especially for his animated charcoal drawings, films, and stage works, in which he engages with history, politics, and memory. His works are shown worldwide in leading museums, including MoMA in New York, Tate Modern in London, and Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2025 he will be featured in a major solo exhibition at the Folkwang Museum in Essen.
Kentridge represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale and is regarded as one of the most influential voices in contemporary art.

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