William Kentridge: Listen to the Echo

William Kentridge (born in 1955 in Johannesburg) is one of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists. He came to fame internationally at the end of the 1980s with his animated short films; in them, Kentridge both critically and very poetically explores South Africa’s past and its present. These films, which are based on large-format charcoal drawings, constitute the starting point of what has evolved into a wide-ranging oeuvre that encompasses drawings, prints, sculptures, and tapestries as well as opera productions and multimedia theatre plays. In his thematically interwoven works, Kentridge repeatedly addresses the question of justice, but also the relationship between the individual and society. On the occasion of the artist’s 70th birthday, Museum Folkwang and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are hosting a major retrospective covering William Kentridge’s entire career with exhibits spanning more than four decades.

One focus at Museum Folkwang will be on the films from the Drawings for Projection series which deal with the rise and fall of Johannesburg and the difficult legacy of apartheid. Kentridge’s focus on European colonialism in Africa also plays an important role in the exhibition, particularly in the form of his drawing series Colonial Landscapes, the Porter tapestries and the mechanical miniature stage Black Box / Chambre Noire.

For many years now, William Kentridge has been creating his own pieces for music theatre, which he then elaborates into multimedia works; a prime example is To Cross One More Sea, a three-channel  film installation about artists and intellectuals fleeing the Nazi regime by ship. Kentridge also appears in his own films. The  film series Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot provides an amusing, in-depth insight into his thoughts and his studio as a place of creative artistic practice.

Museum Folkwang and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are showcasing the work of the South African artist in the form of an extensive joint project. Extensive exhibitions will take place simultaneously in Essen and Dresden. Both exhibitions are being organised in close collaboration with William Kentridge.

The joint exhibition catalogue will be published by Steidl Verlag, Göttingen. (German ISBN 978-3-96999-476-4, English ISBN 978-3-96999-475-7, 38.00 EUR)

The exhibition at Museum Folkwang is kindly sponsored by the main sponsor RAG-Stiftung and the sponsors Ministry of Culture and Science of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Sparkasse Essen, Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Rheinland, Kulturstiftung Essen and Folkwang-Museumsverein.

William Kentridge
Listen to The Echo
September 4, 2025–January 18, 2026 (Museum Folkwang)
From 6 September 2025 (Dresden)

Admission: 14 EUR (regular) / 8 EUR (reduced). Tickets available here.