In 2005, Goodman Gallery presented William Kentridge: Preparing the Flute, an exhibition offering a rare glimpse into the artist’s creative process behind his acclaimed production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Commissioned by La Monnaie / De Munt in Brussels, the full-scale opera debuted in April of that year and later toured internationally.
The exhibition also featured a selection of the artist’s preparatory drawings, storyboards, and animation fragments that shaped the visual language of the opera. Together, these elements highlighted Kentridge’s fluid movement between drawing, animation, and theatre.
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Kentridge's multidisciplinary practice has earned him significant international recognition. Since his participation in Documenta X (1997), his work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (San Diego). A travelling survey of his work circulated through Europe between 1998 and 1999, and another toured the United States and South Africa in 2001.
In 1999, Kentridge received the Carnegie Medal at the Carnegie International, followed by the Goslar Kaiserring in 2003 for his contribution to contemporary art. In 2004, a new survey exhibition of his work began its international tour, including venues in Turin, Düsseldorf, Sydney, Montreal, and Johannesburg. At the time of Preparing the Flute, Kentridge was also working on a major commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, set to open later in 2005.
Artist Bio
William Kentridge (b. 1955, Johannesburg, South Africa) is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions.
In 2024, in Venice, Kentridge premiered a new nine-episode video series, 'Self-Portriait as a Coffee Pot,' - a site-specific installation curated by long-time collaborator and curator Carolyn Christov Bakargiev at the Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation. Following this, in October, MUBI presented: William Kentridge’s, ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot’ Premiere in New York.
In conjunction with the world premiere of his newly commissioned opera, 'The Great Yes, The Great No,' which debuted at LUMA Arles in July 2024, the solo exhibition, 'Je n’attends plus' (I’m Not Waiting Any Longer) presents a collection of major works, some of which had not been seen in Europe before.
Kentridge’s largest UK survey to date was held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2022. An iteration of Kentridge's Royal Academy survey opened at the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts in May 2024. In the same year Kentridge opened another major survey exhibition, 'In Praise of Shadows,' at The Broad, Los Angeles. In 2023, this exhibition traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums across the globe since the 1990s, including the Luma Foundation, France (2024); Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation, Venice (2024); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2024); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1999, 2005, 2010); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2010); Musée du Louvre, Paris (2010); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (2015); Kunstmuseum Basel (2019); Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2019). The artist has also participated in biennale’s including Documenta in Kassel (2012, 2002, 1997) and the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2005, 1999, 1993).
Collections include: MoMA, New York; Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi and Zeitz MoCAA, Cape Town.
Kentridge lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
