William Kentridge visits Rochester – Wednesday September 18 and Thursday September 19th
Kentridge, the renowned South African artist, filmmaker, and theater and opera director, is coming as this year’s Distinguished Visitor in the Humanities at the University of Rochester. Among the events open to all of the UR and Rochester community are these:
Wednesday, 9/18 at 8 pm at the Dryden Theater – a screening of the entire series of Kentridge’s works of experimental animation, “Drawings for Projection,” followed by a talk with the artist. Free to UR faculty, students, and staff. For more information, see the Dryden Theater website, Drawings for Projection at Eastman House.
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Thursday, 9/19, at 9:30 AM, in the Welles-Browne Room, Rush Rhees Library – a conversation with William Kentridge, led by Nigel Maister, about his decades-long career as a director of theater and opera. (Please note the change of venue: this was originally scheduled for the Todd Theatre lobby.)
Thursday, 9/19 at 1:30 pm, in the Gowen Room, Wilson Commons – a panel discussion, led by Leora Maltz-Leca, focusing on Kentridge’s work in visual arts and film, with some focus on its South African context. This will be followed by the formal opening of the installation in the Hartnett Gallery of “7 Fragments for Georges Méliès,” with “Day for Night” and “Journey to the Moon.” (The installation in fact opens to the public this coming Thursday, 9/12)
Thursday, 9/19 at 4:00 pm, in the Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library – a public lecture entitled “Everyone Their Own Projector.”
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In tandem with Kentridge’s visit, his video installation “7 Fragments for Georges Méliès,” with “Day for Night” and “Journey to the Moon,” will be on display at the Hartnett Gallery, Wilson Commons, from September 12-29, and a selection of his art books and flip books, with accompanying video, will on display in the front gallery of the Art & Music Library in Rush Rhees.
William Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including Documenta in Kassel, Germany (1997, 2003, 2012), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1998, 2010), the Albertina Museum in Vienna (2010), and the Jeu de Paume in Paris (2010). Kentridge’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute was presented at Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Festival d’Aix, and in 2011 at La Scala in Milan. He directed Shostakovich’s The Nose for the Met Opera in New York in 2010 (the production traveled to Festival d’Aix and to Lyon in 2011), to coincide with a major exhibition at MoMA.
Kentridge received the prestigious Kyoto Prize in 2010, in recognition of his contributions in the field of arts and philosophy. In 2011, Kentridge was elected as an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and received the degree of Doctor of Literature honoris causa from the University of London. In 2011 he also presented the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University; was elected member of the American Philosophical Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the Dan David Prize by Tel Aviv University, and was named as Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. In 2013, William Kentridge was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by Yale University.
The visit of William Kentridge to the University of Rochester is sponsored by the Office of the President and the College of Arts and Sciences, with the collaboration of the Departments of English and Art and Art History, the Film and Media Studies Program, the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, the River Campus Libraries, and the University of Rochester Humanities Project.
For further information contact Professors Joel Burges ( joel.burges@rochester.edu ) or Kenneth Gross ( kenneth.gross@rochester.edu )