William Kentridge
William Kentridge, born 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, lives and works in Johannesburg. Kentridge is best known for his powerful animated films, charcoal drawings, and multimedia installations, his work often grappling with themes of memory, history, and the lingering effects of apartheid and colonialism. Kentridge’s distinctive style involves erasure and redrawing, creating haunting, layered images that seem to breathe with life. Deeply rooted in storytelling, his art blends the personal and political, using humor, tragedy, and absurdity to reflect on the human condition.
Atlas Confession
2002
Published for Documenta 11
Collage of torn black Canson paper pieces, on pages from a Stielers Hand-Atlas book (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1906), with Chine-collé to BFK Rives paper, 50 x 66 cm. Edition of 45 (+ X A.P. with collages on different maps), signed and numbered.
For this edition, William Kentridge combined his signature stencil figures with a background of printed text, layering gesture and history into a single visual field. Set against the ordered structure of a vintage dictionary page, the dynamic, almost animated figures create a dialogue between fixed knowledge and the fluidity of human experience. As in much of Kentridge’s work, memory, movement, and historical narrative intertwine in a scene that feels simultaneously personal and universal.
