NEW YORK, – The Museum of Modern Art presents William Kentridge: Five Themes, a comprehensive survey of the artist’s career, featuring more than 120 works in a range of mediums—animated films, drawings, prints, theater models, and books—on view from February 24 to May 17, 2010. Kentridge (South African, b. 1955) has earned international acclaim for his interdisciplinary practice, which mingles the fields of visual art, film, and theater. Known for engaging with the social and political landscape of his homeland, South Africa, he has produced a body of work that explores colonial oppression and social conflict, loss and reconciliation, and the ephemeral nature of both personal and cultural memory.
William Kentridge, Learning the Flute. Letterpress on encyclopedia pages mounted on 110 sheets of paper, overall: 9’ 2 13/16” x 11’ 8 3/8″ (281.5 x 356.6 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Patricia P. Irgens Larsen Foundation Fund © 2010 William Kentridge
The exhibition underscores the inter-relatedness of his mediums and disciplines through the presentation of five primary themes that cut across Kentridge’s artistic output. William Kentridge: Five Themes, which follows a chronological progression, comprises works created over the last three decades and features new developments, revealing as never before the full arc of his distinguished career.
The exhibition also traces the evolution of Kentridge’s subject matter, from the specific context of apartheid in South Africa to more universal stories and a range of human conditions. In recent years Kentridge’s thematic concerns have expanded to include his own studio practice, the Enlightenment and colonialism, and the cultural history of post-revolutionary Russia. This newer work is based on an intensive exploration of themes connected to Kentridge’s own life experience, as well as the social issues that most concern him. Compared to his earlier work, the new projects are dramatically larger in scope, such as The Nose—a full-scale opera directed and designed by Kentridge, which makes its world premiere at The Metropolitan Opera in March 2010.
William Kentridge: Five Themes was organized by independent curator Mark Rosenthal, in close collaboration with the artist, for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Norton Museum of Art in Florida, two of the venues which presented the exhibition in 2009. It will travel internationally to museums in Paris, Vienna, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, and Vancouver. At MoMA, the exhibition has been expanded, with nearly half of the New York presentation drawn from MoMA’s unparalleled collection of Kentridge’s installations, films, drawings, and prints, several of which were included in the travelling exhibition. An additional 38 prints from the Museum’s collection have also been included in MoMA’s presentation. The exhibition is organized at MoMA by Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA’s Chief Curator-at-Large, and Director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Judith B. Hecker, Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books; and Cara Starke, Assistant Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art.
In conjunction with MoMA’s exhibition, the Museum is publishing William Kentridge: Trace. Prints from The Museum of Modern Art, which includes an original essay on the artist’s printmaking by Ms. Hecker, as well as forty pages of new artwork by Kentridge specifically designed for the publication. This publication is in addition to the existing exhibition catalogue, William Kentridge: Five Themes, edited by Mark Rosenthal and produced in close collaboration with the artist.
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400
Blog: www.moma.org/insideout
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MuseumofModernArt
Twitter: www.twitter.com/MuseumModernArt
Videos: www.youtube.com/momavideos
Flickr: www.flickr.com/groups/themuseumofmodernart/
www.moma.org
