Exhibition by brilliant South African artist William Kentridge opens at the Art Gallery of NSW
The Art Gallery of NSW has opened an exhibition of artworks by one of the world’s most famous contemporary artists — the South African, William Kentridge.
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The Art Gallery of NSW has opened an exhibition of artworks by one of the world’s most famous contemporary artists — the South African, William Kentridge.
Featuring 32 pieces from the last two decades, the exhibition includes films, drawings, prints and sculptures.
The centrepiece is Kentridge’s multichannel film, I am not me, the horse is not mine, from 2008.
The exhibition includes loans from Kentridge’s own collection as well as works held by the AGNSW. The gallery’s collection includes I am not me, the horse is not mine, which will be on show. Australian collector Naomi Milgrom has also loaned works.
The gallery says the exhibition’s title, That which we do not remember, can be read as an allusion to the nature of many of Kentridge’s works. His process often involves the creation of charcoal drawings that are erased and reworked to become part of his stop-motion films.
The title also refers to “the shortcomings of historical memory as Kentridge emphasises the ambiguity, contradiction and uncertainty that is embedded in our relationship to history”.
Kentridge grew up in the era of radical segregation, and his parents Sir Sydney and Felicia Kentridge were famous anti-apartheid lawyers.
The title I am not me, the horse is not mine, was a Russian saying, used to deny guilt.
Kentridge’s work of that title is made up of eight, six-minute films on a loop. They relate to his preparatory work for the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 production of Shostakovich’s opera, The Nose. The Nose was based on the 1837 story by Nikolai Gogol.
William Kentridge: That which we do not remember, until February 3, 2019, Art Gallery of NSW, free, artgallery.nsw.gov.au