Back

William Kentridge

SELECTED WORKS
Tree (Century Dictionary)
2023
Drypoint and hand-painting on non-archival paper from The Century Dictionary, Vol. I (1914) and adhered to Hahnemühle paper

Image size: 11 x 14 3/4 inches (27.9 x 37.5 cm)
Paper size: 16 1/4 x 15 3/4 inches (41.3 x 40 cm)
Edition of 20
Signed recto bottom right in graphite
(Inventory #36364)

Tree (Britannica)
2023
Drypoint and hand painting on non-archival paper from the encyclopedia Britannica, Vol V (1911) and adhered to Hahnemühle paper

Image size: 11 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches (29.2 x 19.7 cm)
Paper size: 14 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches (37.5 x 29.8 cm)
Edition of 20
Signed recto bottom right in graphite
(Inventory #36363)

Oh To Believe In Another World
2023
Direct gravure and drypoint on gampi chine collé

Image size: 11 x 14 3/4 inches (27.9 x 37.5 cm)
Paper size: 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches (40 x 50.2 cm)
Edition of 20
Signed recto lower right in graphite
(Inventory #36362)

Studio Self-Portrait I
2023
Photogravure with drypoint and hand-painted chine collé on Hahnemühle, Natural White, 300gsm

Image size: 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches (24.8 x 19.7 cm)
Paper size: 14 1/6 x 12 1/3 inches (36 x 31 cm)
Edition of 20
Signed lower right, numbered lower left, in graphite
(Inventory #36657)

Studio Self-Portrait II (And I Alone)
2023
Photogravure with drypoint and hand-painted chine collé on Hahnemühle, Natural White, 300gsm

Image size: 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches (24.8 x 19.7 cm)
Paper size: 14 1/6 x 12 1/3 inches (36 x 31 cm)
Edition of 20
Signed lower right, numbered lower left, in graphite
(Inventory #36658)

Eight Vessels
2021
4-Plate photogravure with hand painting on 4 sheets of Hahnemühle Natural White paper pinned using 11 round 1/8” matte black map pins

Edition of 20
25 x 38 inches (63.5 x 96.5 cm)
Signed lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33005)

Lexicon (Parade)
2020
Coffee-lift etching and drypoint on 100% Sisal paper chine collé on Rivere paper

Edition of 40
Image size: 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (29.2 x 39.4 cm)
Paper size: 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches (40 x 50.2 cm)
Frame size: 18 3/8 x 22 3/8 inches (46.7 x 56.8 cm)
Signed lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #32737)

Lexicon (Emergency)
2020
Coffee-lift etching and drypoint on 100% Sisal paper chine collé on Rivere paper

Edition of 40
Image size: 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (29.2 x 39.4 cm)
Paper size: 15 13/16 x 19 11/16 inches (40.2 x 50 cm)
Signed lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33419)

The Flood from Triumphs and Laments
2016
Arrangement of 15 woodcuts from ten woodblocks onto nine large sheets and six pieces of Somerset Soft White paper assembled by 30 aluminum pins

Overall size:  71 1/4 x 84 inches  (181 x 213.4 cm)
Edition of 12
Signed and numbered on accompanying certificate
(Inventory #29857)

That Which I Do Not Remember from Triumphs and Laments
2017
Arrangement of 13 woodcuts onto 26 sheets of Somerset Velvet, Soft White paper, each with relief printing, assembled with 56 aluminum pins

82 1/2 x 78 1/2 inches (209.6 x 199.4 cm)
Edition of 12
Signed and numbered on accompanying certificate
(Inventory #29858)

Baggage I, Baggage II, Baggage III
2000-2001
Lithograph on Fabriano Rosaspina paper

Edition of 24
Image size: 17 3/4 x 66 inches  (45.1 x 167.6 cm)
Paper size: 23 5/8 x 72 1/8 inches  (60 x 183.2 cm)
Signed lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #34448)

Additional Information

Born in 1955 in Johannesburg, William Kentridge attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg from 1973 to 1976 and the Johannesburg Art Foundation from 1976 to 1978. Kentridge originally trained in painting and drawing, but he also studied mime and theater at the L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris from 1981 to 1982. When he returned to South Africa in 1985, he worked as a props assistant on a television series. In 1985 he made his first animated film, Vetkoek/Fete Galante. He developed a method of filmmaking that he dubbed “poor-man’s animation,” in which he photographed charcoal drawings and collages as he gradually adjusted them, as in the early films Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris (1989) and Monument (1990).

Through the 1990s, Kentridge maintained a thoroughly multimedia practice, producing and often combining drawings, films, and theater. Since 1992 he has collaborated with the Handspring Puppet Company, presenting both puppets and their manipulators onstage during performances. Much of his work has been politically motivated. He produced posters, drawings, and theater pieces in opposition to the South African apartheid regime through the late 1970s and 1980s, and in the partially animated performances Ubu Tells the Truth (1997) and Ubu and the Truth Commission (1997), produced with Jane Taylor and Handspring, he addressed the ongoing Truth and Reconciliation Commission using themes from Alfred Jarry’s dark play Ubu Roi (1869). A series of films including Mine (1991) and Stereoscope (1998-99) have incorporated recurring characters such as Soho, an unfeeling capitalist, and Felix, a dazed dreamer, to comment on the ambiguity of the South African present. In Zeno at 4 am (2001), the artist crafted an operetta based on Italo Svevo’s 1923 novel Confessions of Zeno, mixing shadow puppetry, film, music, and theater. Soho appeared again in Tide Table (2003-04), a discussion of the AIDS crisis in South Africa. In his series of tapestries (2001-07), Kentridge depicts a suite of complex silhouettes sewn in dyed mohair trekking across maps from nineteenth-century atlases, which highlight his long-standing interest in projections and shadow puppets. The artist also recently directed a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which premiered in April 2005 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and continued on to venues in France, Italy, Israel, the United States, and South Africa (2005-07).

Kentridge has exhibited widely since 1981. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1999), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (2001), the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York (2001), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2002), Castello di Rivoli in Italy (2004), Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2004), Deutche Guggenheim in Berlin (2005), Museum of Modern Art in New York (2006), Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2007), Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008), among other venues. A major survery of Kentridge’s work was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2008 and traveled to the Norton Museum of Art (2008) and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010). He has also participated in many group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (1993 and 2005), Istanbul Biennial (1995), Biennale of Sydney (1996), Documenta 6 and 11 (1997 and 2002), Bienal de São Paulo (1998), Carnegie International (1999), Shanghai Biennale (2000), and Auckland Triennial (2004). In addition, he has appeared in many international film festivals, among them the New Zealand Film Festival and the Internationales Trickfilm Festival Stuttgart (both 2000). He has received many awards for his work, including the Blue Ribbon Award at the American Film Festival in New York (1985), the Carnegie Prize at the Carnegie International (2000), the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2003), and the Kaiserring prize from the Mönchehaus-Museum für Moderne Kunst in Goslar, Germany (2003). He lives and works in Johannesburg.

—Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fair Fall 2022 Online Edition

October 27, 2022
- October 30, 2022

Interiors

March 3, 2022
- April 14, 2022

Featuring works by Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, William Kentridge, Kiki Smith, and Liliana Porter

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA), Fine Art Print Fair (online only) 2020

October 7, 2020
- November 1, 2020

Now and Later

March 7, 2020
- April 4, 2020

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fine Art Print Fair, New York 2019

October 23, 2019
- October 27, 2019

One Wall, One Work:
William Kentridge

January 5, 2019
- February 9, 2019

Interchange

October 22, 2016
- November 19, 2016

Featuring works by William Kentridge, Paul Herrmann, and Amy Stacey Curtis

 

 

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2015

March 3, 2015
- March 8, 2015

 

 

Mereology

December 19, 2014
- January 26, 2015

Featuring works by Scott Hadfield, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Brice Marden, Kiki Smith, and Shellburne Thurber

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2014

November 5, 2014
- November 9, 2014

William Kentridge:
Universal Archive

March 22, 2014
- April 26, 2014

Sets

December 11, 2004
- February 2, 2005

Featuring works by Tara Donovan, Carroll Dunham, Donald Judd, William Kentridge, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Sarah Morris, Julian Opie, Robert Ryman, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, and Terry Winters

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair

November 4, 2004
- November 7, 2004

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair

November 7, 2002
- November 10, 2002

 

 

Summer Group Show

June 10, 2000
- July 28, 2000

Featuring works by Michael Beatty, Barbara Broughel, Jenny Holzer, William Kentridge, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Doug and Mike Starn, Jim Stroud, Bill Thompson, Bill Wheelock