William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows

This book explores the 35-year art career of South African artist William Kentridge, featuring essays by Ann McCoy, Zakes Mda, and Ed Schad, a conversation between Kentridge and Walter Murch, and an unpublished lecture by the artist. It highlights Kentridge's dynamic practice across mediums, including charcoal drawing, film, sculpture, opera, and theater, and his exploration of destabilizing South African and global narratives. The volume is organized chronologically and thematically, emphasizing the artist's studio as a space of generative power and perpetual change. It includes studio photography, archival material, and illustrations of Kentridge's work, alongside essays by renowned literary figures and thinkers. Kentridge's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide since the 1990s, and he has also founded the Centre for Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, which hosts an ongoing program of workshops, public performances, and mentorship activities.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 20 December 2022
Publisher: Distributed Art Publishers

Thirty-five years of South African artist William Kentridge's dynamic, cross-genre art are explored in this comprehensive book, featuring essays by Ann McCoy, Zakes Mda, and Ed Schad, a conversation between the artist and Walter Murch, and an unpublished lecture by Kentridge. Kentridge's art practice, rooted in charcoal drawing, spans a wide range of mediums, including film, sculpture, opera, theater performances, printmaking, and more. The volume is organized chronologically and thematically, emphasizing Kentridge's destabilization of South African and global narratives through openness to uncertainty, the generative power of the artist's studio, and perpetual change. This approach seeks to illuminate repressed and silenced voices in historical records. Curator Ed Schad contributes an essay alongside studio photography, archival material, and illuminating illustrations of Kentridge's work. Essays by renowned literary figures and thinkers Zakes Mda and Ann McCoy further enrich the volume. Notably, the book features a conversation between Kentridge and the renowned film and sound editor Walter Murch, as well as a never-before-published lecture by the artist. Kentridge's work has been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries worldwide since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, and the Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. Opera productions featuring his work include Mozarts The Magic Flute, Shostakovichs The Nose, and Alban Bergs operas Lulu and Wozzeck. In 2016, Kentridge founded the Centre for Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, a space for responsive thinking and making through collaborative projects.

Weight: 1454g
Dimension: 218 x 279 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781636810669