William Kentridge

Visionary William Kentridge, born and based in Johannesburg, frequently invokes the socio-political conditions of post-apartheid South Africa in his expressionist masterpieces. Exploring drawing, performance, film, printmaking, sculpture, and painting, Kentridge reconfigures shards of the past in order to make a true sense of the present. His enveloping works have been exhibited at premier institutions such as Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2019); the Royal Academy, London (2022); The Broad Museum, Los Angeles (2022); MFA Houston, Texas (2023), and many more.

Concerned with the ways history shapes our present, Kentridge has used his artistic practice in search of answers for the last several decades. Working to make sense of the world and constructs of meaning, these explorations continued in his 2022 exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong titled “Weigh All Tears.” The presentation (organized with support from Goodman Gallery) was the artist’s first solo show in Hong Kong and featured new tapestries, sculptural works like the wooden Ladder Horse and a series of laser-cut steel heads, and the titular triptych—which measured more than 18-feet wide and featured a suite of silhouettes set against a collage made from archival documents and maps of Africa.

Kentridge is interested in what happens in the margins of the studio, what happens in the unexpected moments in between. He posits that the “less good idea” may actually be the one we should pursue creatively, and in 2014 he founded The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg to support local performers, actors, writers, and creatives in that pursuit. 

In 2023, a major exhibition of work by Kentridge opened at The Broad in Los Angeles. It looked at 35 years of work by the South African artist known for his drawings, animations, installations, and theater pieces. Titled “In Praise of Shadows,” it included more than 130 pieces that showed the breadth of Kentridge’s output, and coincided with a premiere of his theater production, Houseboy, at REDCAT.

In this presentation, the location of Los Angeles offered a chance for the Johannesburg-based artist to focus on his film work and cinematic explorations. At the heart of Kentridge’s studio practice is an emphasis on drawing, often in charcoal, a medium that records the traces of thought, of the development of the idea. The space in between the marks, or in between the shadows of his animations and films, offers insight into his own understanding of his role within a politically and socially fraught space and history, and makes room for the viewer to fill in the blanks with their own memories and experiences. 

The perceptive artist’s first show with Hauser & Wirth in New York, “A Natural History of the Studio” will unfold across two locales in spring 2025: 542 West 22nd Street and 443 West 18th Street. Kentridge unveils his prominent Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot film series alongside over 70 works on paper, a parade of sculptures, and prints. Each gem exhibits Kentridge’s trademark wit while fiercely interlacing the personal and the political. Devoted collaborator Sabine Theunissen led the creation of the show’s first floor installation design at 22nd Street, featuring the magnetic charcoal drawings which supported the animation within Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot.