The latest illy art collection
William Kentridge 2008
The set of six espresso coffee cups and saucers especially designed by the artist for illy to celebrate the House’s seventy-fifth anniversary are beautified by surprisingly beguiling anamorphic patterns. “One of the most striking features of any anamorphic design”, explains the South African-born artist, “is that when we gaze at it directly - in our case the design on the saucer – it appears to be fixed, but when we take a look at it in a mirror - in our case the reflection in the cup – the image is completely different, depending on the design’s proximity to the reflecting surface and the viewing angle. Therefore, even if the design as such is static, it turns into a dynamic image as one moves the cup up from the saucer or lowers it in the act of drinking. The guiding principle in developing such designs is to bear in mind what they look like in a mirror, and not their appearance on the drawing surface.”
William Kentridge’s fascination for anamorphic designs has led him to put his talent to the test in many artistic fields. “I first tried my hand at anamorphic design on cylindrical structures at the Florence Natural History Museum. I started working on these designs – explains William Kentridge – using the reflecting surfaces of disused air-conditioning pipes. While I was working on the cups, I was also at work on a collection of drawings and on an anamorphic film called What Will Come (Has Already Come).”