William Kentridge: Selected Prints and Posters
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
Selected Prints and Posters | 11 February – 1st April 2023
Galerie Marian Goodman, 66 rue du Temple
Marian Goodman Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of rarely seen prints and posters by William Kentridge. This exhibition, created in conjunction with the release of the first volume of Catalogue Raisonné Volume 1, William Kentridge: Prints and Poster 1974 - 1990, includes a group of prints made between 1977-1986 as curated by Warren Siebrits, who researched and compiled the publication.
Kentridge began his formal art education in 1977 under the tutelage of Bill Ainslie at his eponymous studios. During this time, he created his first series of prints based on his drawings of Muizenberg Beach, including Muizenberg Beach Bathing Hut (2 states), (1977). Inspired by the atmosphere of the arcade at the Carlton Center, the city's famous skyscraper, he developed the series, Carlton Center Games Arcade, which includes the print on display Carlton Center Games Arcade -SPIN BALL (1 state), (1977).
By the end of the decade, William Kentridge began to forge ties with the world of theater, in particular with the Market Theater in Johannesburg, which commissioned him posters and exhibited his early works. The theater, founded in 1976, became known as an avant-garde, anti-racist and anti-Apartheid cultural space for performances and exhibitions.
The presentation also includes several prints from the Domestic Scenes (1980) series, in which Kentridge references multiple personal and artistic inspirations, ranging from family furniture, to members of his entourage, to the paintings of Francis Bacon. In 1981 the Domestic Scenes were exhibited in Cape Town and then at the Market Theater before William Kentridge left for Paris, where he took acting and mime classes at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq.
The close relationship between Kentridge's early work and the Market Theater continued upon his return from France in 1982. Several of the posters were produced to promote plays such as The Bacchae (1983) and Dikhitsheneng/The Kitchens (1984) as well as Kentridge's solo exhibitions at the theater, such as Film at The Market Theater (1986).
This event has been programmed in parallel with the presentation from February 11 to 14 of the chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl, directed by William Kentridge, at the Théâtre du Châtelet as part of the Théâtre de la Ville's off-site programming.
William Kentridge was born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he lives and works. His work spans a diverse range of artistic media such as performance, drawing, film, printmaking, sculpture and painting. He has also directed a number of acclaimed operas and theatrical productions. Kentridge has participated in numerous significant international biennials, including Documenta X (1997), XI (2002) and XIII (2012) and the Venice Biennale (1993, 1999 and 2005). He is the recipient of numerous prizes and distinctions, including the Praemium Imperiale Award in painting (2019). In September 2021, he was appointed Associate Foreign Member of France's Académie des beaux-arts.
His most recent solo exhibitions include The Broad, Los Angeles (still on view); The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2022); MUDAM Luxembourg (2021); Musée Métropole d’art moderne in Lille (LaM) (2020); Norval Foundation and Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa (2019–2020); and Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2019). In 2017, Kentridge founded The Centre for the Less Good Idea, an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts, based in Maboneng, Johannesburg.
Press contact: Raphaële Coutant, raphaële@mariangoodman.com or +33 (0)1 48 04 70 52