William Kentridge
William Kentridge is undoubtedly the best known South African artist, currently in demand by major institutions all over the world. He is perhaps best known for his films, theatre, and opera, but he is also a prolific producer of limited edition fine art prints which are as varied and complex as his films. A prolific and highly energetic creator, Kentridge has deployed work in a number of media into an oeuvre of astounding depth.
Of his work, Kentridge has said: “I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain ending - an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check, and nihilism at bay.”
William Kentridge is a South African artist. He was born in Johannesburg in 1955. He took a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and African Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and then a diploma in Fine Arts from the Johannesburg Art Foundation. At the beginning of the 1980s, he studied mime and theatre at the L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. William Kentridge received the Carnegie Medal for the Carnegie International 1999/2000; the Goslar Kaisserring in 2003; and the Oskar Kokoschka Award (2008). He has received honorary doctorates from a number of universities internationally. He lives and works in Johannesburg.
