William Kentridge is one of today's most prominent contemporary artists. He works in a multitude of media: drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theater, and collaborative practices, to create artworks that are rooted in politics, science, literature, and history, while maintaining space for contradiction and uncertainty.
Kentridge's work has been shown in museums, galleries, and theaters around the world since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and the Kunstmuseum in Basel. His works are in the collections of museums and art institutions around the world.
His opera productions include Mozart's The Magic Flute, Shostakovich's The Nose, and Alban Berg's operas Lulu and Wozzeck. They have been shown at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala, London's English National Opera, Lyon Opera, Amsterdam Opera, Sydney Opera and the Salzburg Festival, among others.
In 2016, Kentridge founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg: a space for reactive thinking and creation through experimental, collaborative, and transdisciplinary art practices. The Centre hosts an ongoing program of workshops, public performances and mentorship activities.
The recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities, including Yale and the University of London, William Kentridge's awards include the Kyoto Prize (2010), the Princesa de Asturias Prize (2017), and the Praemium Imperiale Prize (2019).
He talks with Marie-Laure Bernadac, curator of the exhibition William Kentridge, a poem that is not ours at LaM Villeneuve-d'Ascq in 2020.
Photo credit : Norbert Miguletz
