Hauser & Wirth, in collaboration with Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma, have announced a joint representation of South African artist William Kentridge. Hauser & Wirth also announced that it will hold a solo exhibition of the artist in New York in 2025.
Born in Johannesburg in 1955, where he still lives, Kentridge has spent five decades developing a versatile practice that includes drawing, sculpture, printmaking, film, theater and opera. Influenced by his upbringing during the apartheid era, Kentridge’s art deals with themes of history, power and memory. Between 1989 and 2003, he gained recognition for nine animated short films made with charcoal drawings.
“William’s virtuosity as an artist, thinker, polymath and mentor of others distinguishes him as a creative light of our time,” said Iwan Wirth, president of Hauser & Wirth. “Through the diversity, boldness and sheer power of his work, he mixes universal and personal themes to lead us through the labyrinths of politics, mythology, literature and art history. In this way, William has created something epic and ephemeral with his art, always finding new ways to express the most difficult ideas”.
In 2016, Kentridge founded the Johannesburg Center for Lesser Ideas. The interdisciplinary art space regularly organizes workshops, exhibits public performances and offers mentoring initiatives.
Kentridge’s work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Broad in Los Angeles, and the Center Pompidou in Paris. On July 7, Kentridge’s opera “The Great Yes, the Great No” will be presented by the LUMA Foundation in Arles (France), in collaboration with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
