William Kentridge’s practice combines the political with the poetic. Having witnessed first-hand one of the twentieth century’s most contentious struggles—the dissolution of apartheid—he brings the ambiguity and subtlety of personal experience to public subjects that are more often framed in narrowly defined terms.
Negotiating subjects as sobering as colonialism, and totalitarianism, his work is often imbued with lyrical undertones or comedic bits of self-deprecation that render his powerful messages both alluring and ambivalent. Best known for animated films based on charcoal drawings, he also works in prints, books, collage, sculpture, and the performing arts. Solo exhibitions of his works held in 2018 include More Sweetly Play the Dance, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; O Sentimental Machine, Liebieghaus Skulptursammlung, Frankfurt and Refusal of Time, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus.