William Kentridge Drawing for the Nose (General Nose), 2010 Indian ink on found ledger pages Work: 174 x 129.5 cm
"In 2006 William Kentridge was commissioned to stage Dmitri Shostakovich's opera based on Gogol's The Nose (first performed in January 1930 at Leningrad's Maly Opera Theatre) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. More than three years passed before the premiere: years in which numerous works relating to Gogol's story were produced. These works, in their abundnce, document the diversity and brilliance of Kentridge's forms of artistic expression."
Sabine Schaschl
Nikolai Gogol's 1836 satirical story, The Nose, tells how Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov of St Petersburg, wakes up one day to discover that his nose has left his face. Horrified by its absence he sets out in search of his nose and when he eventually finds it, not only does his nose deny having belonged to Kovalyov but it is also wearing the uniform of a State Councillor - a political rank higher than Kovalyov himself.
Kentridge's stately portrait, in Indian ink, evokes the haughty superiority of Kovalyov's nemesis, his own own nose, dressed in uniform.
