William Kentridge: Carlton Centre Games Arcade

Once the tallest building in Johannesburg, the Carlton Centre is familiar feautre of the city’s skyline. Owned by Anglo American, it was the most expensive and extravagant hotel and shopping complex on the African contenent for the longest time. It was also a short walk away from the legal pracitce of one Sydney Kentridge, William Kentridge’s father.

The Carlton Centre became a familiar haunt for the South African artist, a place to observe the patrons, and in time, and inspiration. In the 1970s, Kentridge began to depict the life of the Carlton Centre within his work. In ink and on paper, Kentridge began to capture the numerous black men who had come to the city centre to seek work, against Apartheid law at the time. Homeless, these men found refuge inside the bright light and noise of the Carlton Centre’s Game’s Arcade, evading the authoroties among the machines.

In William Kentridge Carlton Centre Games Arcade, the reader is invited to explore these early prints, accompanied by comments from Kentridge himself, offering wonderful insight into the work.

The book also feautres a preface by Warren Siebrets, a long time collector of Kentridge’s works, and an established writer in relation to South Africa’s art scene.

More than anything else, however, the book is simply beautiful. As with many books from Stiedl, this book is bound in cloth, a gorgeous shade of sea blue. It’s cover comes in four variations, much like William Kentridge’s Domestic Scenes, published in 2022 and featured 16 varied covers. With each cover, the image is inset into the book, and printed in colour and detail, allowing its holder to admire the image fully.

This is a definite must have for all interested in the work of William Kentridge. It offers glimpse into a time of the artist life that was incrediably influential on his career.