Title

William Kentridge: Drawn from Africa.

Venues

National Gallery Of Australia (17 January 2016 – 26 June 2016)

Date

(2016)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (ACT). Prints.

Curator

Kinsman, Jane.

Web address

https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/william-kentridge-…

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

William Kentridge was born in apartheid South Africa in 1955. During his childhood, Kentridge's mother, Felicia, and father, Sydney, were both actively involved in supporting South Africa's anti-apartheid activists in political trials and in events such as the inquest into the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. His family's involvement in the injustices of apartheid played an important role in his development and informed his work as a gifted figurative artist. Given this background, Kentridge considered abstract art and conceptual art 'an impossible activity'.

Kentridge's art belongs to a tradition of some of the great figurative artists of the past such as William Hogarth, Francisco Goya and Honoré Daumier, as well as the German Expressionists Max Beckmann and George Grosz. These artists created powerful imagery that explored the social conditions of their time.

While Kentridge follows in their footsteps, he also develops imagery of subtlety and imagination in film, drawing, printmaking and tapestry design and explores three dimensions in innovative opera productions and sculptural forms. His art dismantles, transforms and fuses one art category into another.

[National Gallery of Australia media, 2016].

Last Updated

09 Aug 2024