Zeno at 4 a.m.
Kentridge developed this group of prints in tandem with a theater work of the same title, both inspired by Italian writer Italo Svevo’s masterpiece of solipsistic fiction Confessions of Zeno (1923). Svevo’s novel is written as the first-person journal entries of a narcissistic, middle-aged hypochondriac from Trieste named Zeno Cosini, who is telling his story at a psychotherapist’s request. For Zeno at 4a.m., Kentridge in part appropriates Zeno’s paranoid history as his own, and many of the objects represented in this suite of prints—the telephone, the transmission tower, the shower—are frequent protagonists throughout the artist’s projects.
Artwork Details
- Title: Zeno at 4 a.m.
- Artist: William Kentridge (South African, born Johannesburg, 1955)
- Printer: Maurice Payne
- Publisher: David Krut Fine Art, Inc.
- Date: 2001
- Medium: Set of 11 intaglio prints of various etching techniques on paper
a: Open-bite etching
b: Etching, aquatint and open-bite
c: Etching, aquatint and open-bite with burnishing
d: Etching, aquatint, open-bite and drypoint
e: Open-bite and etching
f: Open-bite and aquatint
g: Etching and aquatint
h: Open-bite etching
i: Etching, aquatint and roulet - Edition: 36/40
- Dimensions: Each sheet: 14 in. × 11 5/8 in. (35.5 × 29.5 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Reba and Dave Williams Gift, 2001
- Object Number: 2001.592a-i
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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