Born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his animated, stop-action films and the ethereal charcoal drawings upon which they are based. His prints, projections, and collaborative theatre productions reflect his exquisite skills not only as draftsman, but also as storyteller, artistic director, and social critic. Much of his work constitutes an oblique and deeply imaginative commentary on the pathos and devastation wrought by apartheid and its reckoning in the post-apartheid years. Inspired also by absurdist trends in the literary and dramatic arts—and by his own distrust of claims to certainty—Kentridge's work is often satirical, irreverent, yet never lacking in empathy.
Sponsored by Office of the Chancellor, U of I; Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, U of I; Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency; Krannert Art Museum Director's Circle; and Krannert Art Museum Council.
Demonstrating both the technical and thematic range of Kentridge's work, this exhibition brings together six of the artist's nine animated Drawings for Projection, a suite of three drypoint prints, a large-format etching that combines multiple print techniques, and an anamorphic lithograph.
Select Exhibition Programming
February 4–5:30 pm
Film Screening
William Kentridge: Art from the Ashes (1999) Co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Culture and Society and Krannert Art Museum
February 4–5:30 pm
Gallery Conversation
With Kevin Hamilton (New Media), Allyson Purpura (curator), Michael Rothberg(English), and moderated by Matti Bunzl (Anthropology and the Program in Jewish Culture and Society). Co-sponsored by the Prorgram in Jewish Culture and Society and Krannert Art Museum
Curators:
Allyson Purpura, Curator of African Art
Before joining Krannert Art Museum, Allyson Purpura was research specialist at the National Museum of African Art (2002–2006) and guest curator at the Mexican Heritage Plaza (2007) and the University of Michigan Museum of Art (2006–2008). She has also collaborated with contemporary African artists on a number of writing and exhibition projects. Purpura received her PhD in cultural anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center, a certificate in museum studies from George Washington University, and has taught courses on the anthropology of knowledge, Zanzibar and the Swahili coast, and critical museology at Haverford College and George Washington University. Her current areas of research include the historiography of African art and the politics of representation, ephemeral art, and the relationship between genres of ethnographic and art writing.
