Blue Head
1993‚98
Drypoint and aquatint on paper
99.10, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund

b. 1955, South Africa

William Kentridge received a degree in political science and African studies, which informs his work as an artist. Performance also plays a central role in his workóhe founded a theater company, studied mime and theater in Paris and, from 1982 to 1984, was art director for television series and feature films. Through his distinctive charcoal drawings, animated films and performances, Kentridge creates short lyrical narratives and commentary on the political oppression and industrial exploitation of South African people and landscapes.

In 1989 Kentridge began making short animated films by photographing his charcoal drawings with a video camera and altering them in minute ways to move the story forward. The drawing and erasure of charcoal lines conjures an atmosphere of selective historical memory. Through a vast range of creative media, Kentridge constructs moral allegories out of lines and erasure to explore themes of love and betrayal, oppression and violence, death and regeneration.

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