In the Three Sisters, South African artist William Kentridge continues an ongoing series of painted bronzes. They are experiments in trompe l'oeil, visual illusions, deceiving the eye: cardboard and wood sculptures are turned into bronze, which is painted to look like cardboard and wood. Picasso’s Glass of Absinthe and polychrome sculptures of classical antiquity (which we see as white marble, but which were originally painted) are particular historical references for the series.
