Biggest ever Kentridge show explores Africa's history

Evocative videos, graphic tapestries, charcoal drawings, woodcut prints, Sculptures and immersive sound installations combine in the largest single show by South African artist William Kentridge to explore compelling themes including South Africa's apartheid history and the participation of Africans in World War I.

Surveying the work of Kentridge's prolific 43-year career in many mediums, the show brims over at two locations, The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art at Cape Town's waterfront and Sculptures at the Norval Foundation in the Steenburg vineyards nearby.

"Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work," opening Sunday, draws its title from the words of an African conscripted to fight in the First World War, who was faced with a difficult choice: risk death in the war or refuse to serve and face persecution by the colonial regime.

William Kentridge, left, at the opening of his exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa. AP

Kentridge, the son of anti-apartheid lawyer Sydney Kentridge, who represented Nelson Mandela, told The Associated Press that social and political commentary have inspired his work.

"I didn't consciously or disingenuously decide to include political and social reflections into my artistic purpose. However, I grew up in South Africa, in which it was, and is, impossible to avoid politics," said Kentridge. "I was aware from a young age of living in an unnatural rather than a natural society, and later, recognizing contradiction as a central category to understanding society."

The show starts with Kentridge's early charcoal drawings from the 1970s and moves to his etchings, large graphics and videos, evoking the tensions of South Africa's violent struggle against apartheid, the system of racial discrimination that ended in 1994.

Works of art by South African artist William Kentridge are exhibited in Cape Town, South Africa. AP

"South Africa has changed enormously. I was a student in 1976 when there was the Soweto students' uprising and then a young artist when the country was in a state of emergency. I had 30 years of life under apartheid and now nearly 30 years after apartheid," he told AP. "South Africa has changed enormously and yet South African has changed hardly at all. Many aspects of daily life here are still the same."

The exhibit fills up several floors of the Museum of Contemporary African Art. The dizzying amount of work "is interspersed with rooms designed for reflection, such as a library where people can sit and look at elements of inspiration, a workshop showing how Kentridge's prints are produced and the tapestry room which has seating to contemplate the fabrics mounted on the walls. There is also an area for children.

Works by William Kentridge, go on display in Cape Town, South Africa. AP

Kentridge's Sculptures, from the small to the monumental are displayed at the Norval Foundation gallery set among Cape Town's vineyards in Steenburg.

"I call it anti-Sculpture," said Kentridge of the work. "It is not like traditional Sculpture where it looks the same as you walk around it. My Sculptures occupy space, but there is only one spot where it all pulls together. From other angles you see all the different parts in a kind of exploded or chaotic way. It shows how we construct coherence from what is a chaotic reality around us."

Kentridge became internationally prominent with shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris. He has also designed productions for operas at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan and the English National Opera in London. "The Head & the Load," described as a processional opera about the paradoxical participation of Africans in World War I, was produced in London and New York in 2018.

"Kentridge's position is solid, unshakeable because his work is accessible and honest. He is one of the pillars of contemporary art in Africa," said Azu Nwagbogu, a curator of the show. "He illustrates the complexities and paradoxes of the relationship between Africa and Europe. His work will always have relevance. And this exhibit shows the breadth of his talent."

Associated Press