William Kentridge

KENTRIDGE, William (1955-) Internationally acclaimed artist, set designer, actor, director, writer for stage and film. A brilliant and innovative personality and artist who by the 1990s was generally acclaimed as South Africa’s premier graphic artist. Born in Johannesburg, he has a BA in Politics and African Studies (University of the Witwatersrand 1974-76), art training with Bill Ainslie at the Johannesburg Art Foundation (1976-78) and mime and theatre at the École Jacques le Coq in Paris (1981-82). Active in film and theatre since mid-seventies, as writer, director, actor and set designer. Co-founder of Junction Avenue Theatre Company (with Malcolm Purkey, ***?) in 1975-1991 and of Free Filmmakers Cooperative (1988). For them he worked as designer and/or director on plays such as The Fantastical History of a Useless Man (1976), Randlords and Rotgut (1977*), Security (1979), Ilanga lizophumela abasebenzi (1980), and the brilliantly successful Sophiatown (1988), for which he did the remarkable yet functional set designs. In 1992 his celebrated collaboration as designer/director with the Handspring Puppet Company began, leading to Woyzeck on the Highveld (1992), Faustus in Africa (1995), Ubu and the Truth Commission (text by Jane Taylor, 1997), the opera Il Ritorno d’Ulisse ("The Return of Ullyses"), which premiéred at the celebrated Kusten Festival des Artes in Brussels in 1998, and Confessions of Zeno (Spier Amphitheatre, 2002). Besides numerous his ultra-short video art/ animation projects (including Felix in Exile in 1994 and Zeno Writing in 2002), his longer films include Howl at the Moon (1981), Salestalk (1984), Freedom Square and Back of the Moon (1988). The puppets used for Faustus in Africa and later plays (designed by Kentridge and made by Adrian Kohler and company) have since been housed in a museum in Berlin. His designs and works have one a range of awards over the world. Having had numerous exhibitions locally and abroad over the years, Kentridge was honoured with a solo exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2001.

KENTRIDGE, William. He starred in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, directed by Malcolm Purkey, with Nicholas Ellenbogen and Vanessa Cooke at Upstairs at the Market in 1978. He directed the Handspring Puppet Company in Woyzeck on the Highveld at Upstairs at the Market in 1992.

KENTRIDGE, William. Confessions of Zeno, Spier-amfiteater, Stellenbosch, 13/2/03. Handspring Puppet Company of Adrian Kohler, Dawid Minnaar. Musiek: Sontonga-strykkwartet. Films: Johannesburg, Second Greatest city in the World after Paris, monument, Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old, Mine, Felix in Exile, & The History of the Main Complaint. 1994 Another Country (music video). Ubu and the Truth Commission (Grahamstown Festival (1997) with Dawid Minnaar, Busi Zokufa, puppets of Basil Jones & Adrian Kohler. The Magic Flute (1998-2007)*** (Tucker, 1997)

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