This major exhibition of Kentridge’s work will be hosted simultaneously in two parts by Norval Foundation and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, opening 24 August and will run through to March 2020.
Local art enthusiasts and international visitors to Cape Town will have access to many different works, executed over decades, by William Kentridge in two of the city’s leading art institutions at the same time, with the artist’s Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture on view at Norval Foundation and Why Should I Hesitate? Putting Drawings To Work on display at Zeitz MOCAA.
Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture, at Norval Foundation, will present three-dimensional work of William Kentridge from the past 19 years. This will be the first exhibition internationally to address Kentridge’s output as a sculptor. Covering several bodies of work, and testifying to his longstanding and spontaneous improvisation when handling three-dimensional form, Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture sees the origins of these works in props from his operas and images from his animations stepping off the stage and out of the screen, confronting us directly at ground level. Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture will also premiere new works commissioned for the occasion of this special exhibition.
Why Should I Hesitate? Putting Drawings To Work will be staged at Zeitz MOCAA and will offer a wide survey of Kentridge’s work, including early works, as well as newer pieces on view for the first time in South Africa. It will cover over 40 years of artistic production (1976 – 2019) in drawing, stop-frame animation, video, prints, sculpture, tapestry, video and large-scale installation. The title references Kentridge’s primary practice of drawing, and how this core activity informs and enables his studio practice. It also references the impact of individual action on history and the reverse – how history shapes the contemporary and the future – and works as a commentary on various shifting hegemonies of power politics, economies, language and the authority to narrate history.
The exhibitions will also be accompanied by a series of talks and performances with the artist, and leading voices in the cultural sector.
Find out more here.