William Kentridge

Artist extraordinaire

William Kentridge. Photo courtesy www.time.com

On November 10, 2010, cutting-edge South African artist William Kentridge was honoured for his contribution to contemporary art. The Inamori Foundation bestowed the 26th annual Kyoto Prize for Lifetime Achievement for Arts and Philosophy upon Kentridge in recognition of his original and powerful portrayal of human nature through his art. One of the criteria for the award is that the body of work significantly contributes to the betterment of society.

He is the first African to claim the Japanese equivalent of the Nobel Prize, but Kentridge’s inventory of recent honours includes the Carnegie Medal, honorary doctorates in fine art and the Goslar Kaisserring. He has exhibited widely – and frequently solo – at, inter alia, the at Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the Project Room at the Museum of Modern Art and the Drawing Centre in New York, and the Serpentine Gallery in London.

Kentridge was born in 1955 in the city of Johannesburg, which has served as a constant inspiration and backdrop for the artist. He attended the University of the Witwatersrand from 1973 to 1976, reading for a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and African studies before studying art at the Johannesburg Art Foundation. At the foundation, Kentridge was influenced by the powerful graphic style and monochromatic shades of South African artist Dumile Feni.

After a stint studying mime and theatre at the Ecole International de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris in the early 1980s, Kentridge turned to his art in earnest. He founded the Free Filmmakers Cooperative, shooting short animated movies from his hand-drawn charcoal sketches – he uses minimal colour – which were modified as parts of them were erased and the next frame shot. Most animated movies involve a series of cells in which movement is shown, but Kentridge rubbed out the original picture, allowing the scars of previous images to show through. In 1989, he made his first animated film, Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris.

Aside from his signature animations, Kentridge is also renowned for his collaborations with the Handspring Puppet Company. Three-quarter life-size wooden puppets inspired by classics such as Faustus and Ubu, for example, were fashioned from Kentridge’s sketches. Inspiration was drawn from a mishmash of sources, resulting in vivid and complex symbols with deeply embedded meanings that resonate on multiple levels. Similar themes have inspired etchings, lithographs and silkscreen works.

Kentridge’s work relies on context and did not escape the influence of apartheid and the oppression of many living in Johannesburg at the time the young artist was developing his craft. The references and imagery is subtle though, and his work is marked by his ability to adopt an impartial position as an observer. It is necessary to have an understanding of South African politics and the conditions under which people lived to truly appreciate his work, such as the conception and direction of Ubu and the Truth Commission in 1996.

Kentridge still lives in Johannesburg with his family, and his artistic genius remains in demand from leading institutions all over the world.