William Kentridge

William Kentridge: Five Themes, a comprehensive survey of the contemporary South African artist's work, will open at the Albertina October 29th, 2010. Featuring more than 60 works in a range of media — including animated films, drawings, prints, theater models, sculptures, and books — the exhibition is co-organized by SFMOMA and the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

In close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition explores five primary themes that have engaged Kentridge over the past three decades. Although the exhibition highlights projects completed since 2000, it will also present, for the first time, Kentridge's most recent work alongside his earlier projects from the 1980s and 1990s — revealing as never before the full arc of his distinguished career.

William Kentridge: Five Themes brings viewers up to date on the artist's work over the past decade,
exploring how his subject matter has evolved from the specific context of South Africa to
more universal stories. In recent years, Kentridge has dramatically expanded both the scope
of his projects (such as recent full-scale opera productions) and their thematic concerns,
which now include his own studio practice, colonialism in Namibia and Ethiopia, and the
cultural history of postrevolutionary Russia. His newer work is based on an intensive exploration of themes connected to his own life experience, as well as the political and social issues that most concern him.