William Kentridge, Lexicon Medium Bronze (Cape Silver) (2018), via Marian Goodman

Currently on in New York City Marian Goodman Gallery has tapped artist William Kentridge to present a series of new works in film, drawing and sculpture, uniting materials from three major performance projects that have been in the works over the past two years. The show, Let Us Try for Once, brings together materials from The Head & the Load, a theatrical tour de force co-composed by Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi and recently shown at the New York Armory in December 2018, as well as a celebrated production of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck, which Kentridge directed for the Salzburg opera festival in 2017 (and coming to The Metropolitan Opera in 2019-2020), as well as Ursonate, a performance of Kurt Schwitters’ 1932 sound poem of the same title, presented at Performa Biennial New York. (more…)

William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time (2012), all images courtesy the artist via White Chapel Gallery.

Now through January 15th, Whitechapel Gallery in London is presenting a new exhibition of work by William Kentridge, one of South Africa’s pre-eminent artists. William Kentridge: Thick Time features six large-scale works created between 2003 and 2016, spanning a range of mediums and thematics that reflect Kentridge’s intense engagement with theories of time and relativity, the history of colonialism, and revolutionary politics. (more…)

William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015), via Art Observed

Artist William Kentridge is currently presenting a pair of multi-media film installations at Marian Goodman’s uptown New York location, drawing on parallels of death and life, utopia and decay, atrophy and entropy.

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William Kentridge has planned a massive installation, Triumphs and Lamentations on the banks of the Tiber in Rome, power-washing its embankments to create a series of monumental images of war and its aftermath.  “Everyone’s triumph is someone else’s disaster,’ Kentridge said at a presentation of the frieze he would use as his plan for the work. “If you’re returning in triumph from a war, it means that other people are returning as slaves.”  (more…)

In a conversation with the Wall Street Journal, art dealer Marian Goodman discusses her new London gallery, set to open October 14th with an show of recent works by Gerhard Richter, whom she represents. The article describes Goodman’s expansion into the area as a “defensive move designed to protect territory she’s staked out over decades” against potential poachers such as David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth, both of which have galleries in the neighborhood.  In addition to Richter, this “territory” includes artists such as Steve McQueen, John Baldessari, and William Kentridge, an impressive dossier that is testament to Goodman’s reputation as both a good judge of talent and a loyal agent.  (more…)

William Kentridge, Installation View (2012), courtesy The Tate Modern

I Am Not Me, the Horse Is Not Mine by William Kentridge, consists of six individual projections juxtaposed against various walls of the Tanks in the Tate Modern. The projections cumulatively comprise a narrative that depicts the story of The Nose (1837), by Nikolai Gogol, whereby a spiteful nose departs itself from its owner’s face, tries to leave the city and is consequently arrested. However despite this, one morning when the owner wakes up, he finds his nose has returned.

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Five paintings worth a total of $2 million were stolen at gunpoint from the Pretoria Art Museum yesterday in what could be the biggest art theft in South African history. Over the past 5-10 years, work by South African artists has increased tenfold, experts say. The thieves are not believed to be professionals, as they left work by some of South Africa’s best-known artists, including work by William Kentridge, behind. The museum’s security cameras were not working at the time; Interpol is investigating. (more…)

Wiliam Kentridge, Man With Trumpet (2010), via Galleria La Rumma

Currently at Galleria Lia Rumma is an extensive exhibition by famed activist, director, animator, printmaker, sculptor and illustrator William Kentridge.  The self-titled show is a personal exhibition of the artists work, being held in conjunction with his involvement in Teatro alla Scala (The Magic Flute), Palazzo Reale (WILLIAM KENTRIDGE & MILANO. Arte, musica, teatro), Palazzo della Triennale (What Will Come, has Already Come) and  Teatro Verdi (Woyzeck on the Highveld).  The show itself is chock-full of Kentridge hits, including monochromatic prints, drawings, Caulder-like sculplture, and an installation with eight video projections and a performance piece entitled “I am not me the horse is not mine.”

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Jeff Koons, Ushering in Banality, 1988. Polychromed wood. All photos by Christian Saltas, unless otherwise noted.

The Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe (FACE) is a collaboration between five non-profit art foundations: the Deste Foundation in Athens, Greece; the Ellipse Foundation in Cascais, Portugal; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy; La Maison Rouge in Paris, France; and Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 2008, the FACE alliance is dedicated to the promotion of emerging international artists by supporting the production and exhibition of new works. Their first initiative takes the form of a traveling exhibition entitled “Investigations of a Dog.”

Bruce Nauman, Untitled (Suspended Chair, Vertical III), 1987.

The exhibition draws its title from a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka, and the selection of works take up the existentialist themes present in Kafka’s work: disillusionment, humanity, and marginalization. Among participating artists are: Maurizio Cattelan, Roberto Cuoghi, Mark Dion, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Urs Fischer, Fischli & Weiss, Claire Fontaine, David Hammons, Thomas Hirschhorn, William Kentridge, Kimsooja, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mark Manders, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Martin Parr, Aurel Schmidt, Santiago Sierra, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker.

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Drawing from Stereoscope (1998-1999) by William Kentridge, via The Museum of Modern Art

I believe that in the indeterminacy of drawing-the contingent way that images arrive in the work-lies some kind of model of how we live our lives. The activity of drawing is a way of trying to understand who we are and how we operate in the world.

-William Kentridge

Currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is “Five Themes” by William Kentridge (b.1955).  The exhibition features a comprehensive survey of the artist’s career highlighting more than 120 works made in a variety of mediums such as visual art, film, and  theater. Known for exploring social conflict in his work particularly that of his South African homeland, he often  questions themes of personal and cultural memory, oppression and reconciliation.  This exhibition underlines the inter-relatedness of Kentridge’s various mediums while exploring five themes  present in his work since the 1980s.

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William Kentridge’s ‘I Am Not Me, The Horse Is Not Mine,’ Photo by Paula Court, Courtesy of Performa

On November 9th, as part of Performa 09, William Kentridge presented ‘I Am Not Me, The Horse Is Not Mine,’ a lecture and animated performance that is related to his upcoming production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 1928 opera ‘The Nose,’ at the Metropolitan Opera. The opera is based on the short story by Gogol of the same name about a man whose nose runs away from him and takes on a life of its own. Central to the story and Kentridge’s performance are the ideas of divided selves and authorial doubt. As Kentridge relays the story, an animated version of himself comes onstage, leading him to pause repeatedly and look over his shoulder, to walk over and quizzically inspect his doppelgänger.

William Kentridge’s ‘I Am Not Me, The Horse Is Not Mine,’ Photo by Paula Court, Courtesy of Performa

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