William KentridgeFlowers for Suzanne , 2018
Kentridge’s fascination with late-Manet’s work is at the premise of this tapestry, especially how the French painter, celebrated for his politically charged masterpieces, spent his final years painting only flowers in vases and the passage of light through water. Kentridge interprets this shift as a political act - an assertion of simplicity as a form of resistance. The tapestry, named after Madame Manet, Suzanne, for whom her husband’s premature death was a double-tragedy.
But it is also a nuanced nod to how Kentridge's parents worked in tandem: the studio in which he created the original drawing for this tapestry is surrounded by the garden where the flowers were freshly cut. It had previously belonged to his parents, Sir Sydney and Felicia Kentridge, who, from the 1950s, cultivated some of Africa’s most impactful speeches with figures like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and others, shaping the continent’s struggle for justice. Felicia’s Legal Resources Centre also supported and facilitated legal assistance for everyday black South Africans.
Here Kentridge intentionally places these flowers in a Consol Jar, a common vessel across Eastern and Southern Africa used to bottle various substances, including light especially in rural communities supported by NGO’s solar initiatives. And, what could be more Kentrigean, and closer to Manet’s endeavours in those last few years of his life than bottling light?
