Critique

The piece “Walking Man”, a linocut on canvas by William Kentridge, is presented in a glass case and depicts a black and white image of a man walking across the earth. The figure has the appearance of a man from the feet to the shoulders but where a head would be, tree branches extend to the top right side of the canvas. The feet of the man are placed in the bottom left corner of the canvas and his body moves diagonally up the top of the canvas. One of his feet is raised as if he is about to crush the scene below him. He dominates the tall and narrow canvas. Below the man, in the very bottom corner of the canvas are power lines and behind the man are clouds. It appears as if the man is going around and crushing the man made things below him.
The scale and composition of the images in this piece creates the idea that nature is an alive and dominating force and that has power over man made creations. Compared to the power lines, the man is larger and thus has more power. What furthers this concept is the contrast between the man and the background. The man is in all black save for some white detailing on the clothing and on the leaves of the man’s branches. The clouds in the background are made up of white and black lines. This contrast causes the figure of the man to stand out against the clouds and appear more dominant and overpowering. The geometric lines of the background also enhance the idea of nature while the solid black of the figure is more comparable to solid, durable man-made things. The fact that the man is both a man and a tree represents the unity of man and nature but how, ultimately, nature is more dominant.
All of these elements effectively enhance the meaning of the work and create a natural path for the eye to follow as it moves across the canvas. The geometric lines of the clouds also create a sense of height in that they are stacked on top of one another. However, the eye gets lost in the figure’s leaves because they, like the clouds behind them, contain equal amounts of black and white and have similar lines which can make it difficult in places to figure out what is part of a cloud and what are part of the leaves. Overall, this piece effectively accomplishes what it sets out to do.