William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions. His method combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre, and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, yet maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty.
Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Musée du Louvre in Paris, Whitechapel Gallery in London, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town as well as the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He has participated in Documenta in Kassel (2012, 2002,1997) and the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2005, 1999 and 1993).
Opera productions include Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Shostakovich’s The Nose, and Alban Berg’s operas Lulu and Wozzeck, and have been staged at opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, Opéra de Lyon, Amsterdam Opera, the Sydney Opera House and the Salzburg Festival. Kentridge’s theatrical productions, performed in theatres and at festivals across the globe include Refuse the Hour, Winterreise, Paper Music, The Head & the Load, Ursonate, Sibyl and The Great Yes, The Great No and in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company, Ubu & the Truth Commission, Faustus in Africa!, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse and Woyzeck on the Highveld. In 2016, Kentridge founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg: a space for responsive thinking and making through experimental, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary arts practices.
He has delivered lectures and received honorary doctorates from several universities around the world, and is the recipient of multiple awards and prizes, including the Kyoto Prize (2010), Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2012), Princesa de Asturias Award for the Arts (2017), Praemium Imperiale Award in Painting (Tokyo, 2019), and the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2023, London). His work is held in major international collections, including Zeitz MOCAA (Cape Town), MoMA (New York), Tate Modern (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest), LACMA (Los Angeles), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), and MAXXI (Rome), among others, as well as numerous private collections worldwide.
Photo credit Helge Mundt, 2025
South Africa