Photo: Peter Campbell / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What grips me about Kentridge is his refusal to let an image stay finished. Filming a charcoal drawing, erasing it, redrawing, filming again, he turns the smudge itself into meaning, and those ghostly traces feel inseparable from South Africa's history of erasure and memory. He is far more than a technically gifted draftsman. The Kyoto Prize and the Praemium Imperiale confirm what I already sensed, that his work carries moral weight. I admire artists who make process visible, and Kentridge makes erasure a form of remembering. To me that paradox is the heart of his genius.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- William Kentridge
- Name (Japanese)
- ウィリアム・ケントリッジ
- Reading
- うぃりあむ・けんとりっじ
- Born
- April 28, 1955 (age 71)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Goat
- Origin
- Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
- Occupation
- film director / painter / theatre director / scenographer / draftsperson
2. Background
- University
- University of the Witwatersrand
Awards & achievements
- Goslarer Kaiserring
- 2012 Dan David Prize
- 2010 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy
- 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2019 Praemium Imperiale
- 2021 honorary doctorate of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was William Kentridge born?
Born April 28, 1955 (age 71).
Where is William Kentridge from?
William Kentridge is from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
What does William Kentridge do?
William Kentridge works as film director, painter, theatre director, scenographer, draftsperson.
Film director — see all → · Painter — see all → · More people from South Africa →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.