In

‘A

Natural

History

of

the

Studio,’

Many

William

Kentridges

Add

Up

to

One:

For

his

latest

exhibition,

the

artist

used

doppelgängers

to

investigate

how

art,

and

people,

are

made.

William Kentridge, the renowned South African artist, began to film himself in his studio during the coronavirus pandemic while he meditated on the practice of self-portraiture. Although he set out to examine the workings of the studio space and how it relates to the production of art, every image seemed to end with a painting of himself as a coffeepot.

The result was “Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot,” a nine-part film series. These episodes, now on the streaming service Mubi, are part of “A Natural History of the Studio,” Kentridge’s first show with Hauser & Wirth in New York. All the drawings from the film series — more than 70 — are present for the first time in a single exhibition, alongside new sculptures. They combine into an effusive repertoire: an artist’s study of his disparate selves, and the materiality of his forms.