The largest exhibition to be held in Africa in over a decade by internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge is set to open in Cape Town in August. The major exhibition of his work will be hosted simultaneously in two parts by Norval Foundation and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), opening 24 August and running through to March 2020.
Local art enthusiasts and international visitors to Cape Town – a fast-growing culture capital – will gain access to many different works executed over decades by the artist, 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, will present three-dimensional works by William Kentridge from the past 19 years. It 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. The exhibit will also premiere new works commissioned for the occasion.
‘Norval Foundation is presenting, for the first time, an exhibition focused solely on William Kentridge’s sculptural practice, working in conjunction with the artist and his studio. Kentridges’ sculptures embrace a spontaneous approach and have recently evolved towards the massive, and the monumental. Simultaneously, and in tension to the monumental aspects of his practice, he is revealed to be a choreographer as much as a sculptor,’ says Karel Nel, Senior Advising Curator at Norval Foundation.
Why Should I Hesitate? Putting Drawings To Work will be staged at Zeitz MOCAA and will offer a wide array 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.
‘As I begin my tenure, it is an intense joy to host an unprecedented survey show of one of the great masters of contemporary visual political poetry,’ says Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz MOCAA.
Both exhibits will include major pieces from Kentridge’s extensive body of work, and will be accompanied by two new publications, conceived in collaboration between Norval Foundation, Zeitz MOCAA and Kentridge himself.
The exhibitions will also be accompanied by a series of talks and performances by the artist as well as leading voices in the cultural sector.
Opening events:
A series of member events and public programmes will be held across both venues over the opening weekend, Saturday, 24 and Sunday, 25 August 2019.
Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture
Venue: Atrium and Galleries 2-8, Norval Foundation, 4 Steenberg Road, Tokai
Run dates: 24 August 2019 – 23 March 2020
Exhibition curators: Karel Nel, Owen Martin, Talia Naicker, Vicky Lekone
Why Should I Hesitate? Putting Drawings To Work
Venue: Level 3 Galleries and throughout, Zeitz MOCAA; Silo District, V&A Waterfront
Run dates: 25 August 2019 – 23 March 2020
Exhibition curators: Azu Nwagbogu, assisted byTammy Langtry
Images and text: supplied
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