Tuesday, 20 September 2016

William Kentridge: Thick Time - Whitechapel Gallery


William Kentridge, 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, Day for Night and Journey to the Moon, 2003.
There are not many contemporary artists who could hold their own in a double bill with Albrecht Dürer. William Kentridge however, is one such artist. One of the best exhibitions I have seen this year was Double Vision: Albrecht Dürer & William Kentridge at the Kulturforum in Berlin in February. So, I have high expectations of William Kentridge: Thick Time -  at the Whitechapel Gallery until 15 January 2017.
William Kentridge, from Rubrics, 2012
Kentridge’s practice is rooted in drawing – especially charcoal and ink drawing and especially filmed animations of those drawings. These ‘charcoal’ films are magical – watch a short excerpt here.  I especially love his animated flipbooks in which he has drawn on the pages of, typically, old reference books, and made films of the pages turning – watch an example here.
William Kentridge, Second Hand Reading, 2013
Kentridge combines a poetic vision and sensibility with a deft and inventive use of materials and technologies to produce ambitious installations with a wonderfully rich range of reference and allusion - to the  history of science (the measurement of time, the mapping of the world) the history of art (Durer) politics (colonialism, apartheid, Trotsky) culture (the films of Méliès, theatre, opera)… Fantastic stuff.
Read a feature article on Kentridge by Nicholas Wroe, read an exhibition reviews by Mark Hudson, Rachel Spence, Jonathan Jones and Celia White; listen to a brief interview with the artist on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Watch a selection of short videos about Kentridge’s work at Art21.
Watch a video of Kentridge talking about his work: How we Make Sense of the World. (Thanks to Agnes.)
Click on images to enlarge.
William Kentridge, Second Hand Reading, 2013
William Kentridge, still from A Journey to the Moon, 2003
Installation view of William Kentridge,The Refusal of Time, 2012
William Kentridge, still from The Refusal of Time, 2012
William Kentridge, still from The Refusal of Time, 2012
William Kentridge, still from O Sentimental Machine, 2015
William Kentridge, still from The Refusal of Time, 2012

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