This screening takes us on a journey through five decades of William Kentridge’s filmmaking practice. Beginning with one of the artist’s first films, the programme moves through a range of different animation techniques he has experimented with and themes he has explored throughout his career. The screening is curated by Kentridge himself, who will give an extended introduction to his practice before the films commence.
This screening coincides with the opening of Kentridge’s Ubu Tells the Truth film installation in Tate Modern’s Artist and Society display. It is presented in advance of his performance The Head & the Load, the artist’s most ambitious project to date.
Please note that this screening depicts violence and mature content.
Programme
Introduction by the artist
Discourse on a Chair 1975, 16mm transferred to digital, colour, silent, 1 min
Vetkoek/Fête Galante 1985, 16mm transferred to digital, colour, sound, 3 min
Exhibition 1987, 16mm transferred to digital, colour, sound, 3 min
Sobriety, Obesity, and Growing Old 1991, 35mm transferred to digital, colour, sound, 9 min
Shadow Procession 1999, 35mm transferred to digital, black and white, sound, 7 min
Drawing Lesson 17 (A Lesson in Lethargy) 2010, HD video, colour, sound, 6 min
Intoxicating Liquor Cash Sales Book / Ref: 04/05/2010 (Drawing Lesson 34) / 1’31” 2010, HD video, colour, sound, 2 min
Other Faces 2011, HD video, colour, sound, 10 min
Second-hand Reading 2013, HD video, colour, sound, 7 min
Tango for Page Turning 2013, HD video, colour, sound, 3 min
About William Kentridge
William Kentridge (b.1955, South Africa) is an artist best known for his prints, drawings, animated films and performance. He originally trained in painting and drawing before studying mime and theatre. His films are constructed through a variety of animation techniques from hand drawing to shadow play, filmed using a meticulous stop-motion process. His works are often marked by humanist and political overtones. Kentridge has exhibited at major international art museums and biennials the world over.
William Kentridge is not just South Africa's most famous artist, he is arguably the most acclaimed animator in international art and a draughtsman whose polemical strength harks back to Daumier and Goya. His images tell stories, and not just because they are strung together in filmed animations. Every picture Kentridge makes has its own narrative force: he is a fabulist working in pencil, ink and charcoal. —The Guardian