Photo of William Kentridge by Norbert Miguletz; Photo of Homi K. Bhabha by Stephanie Mitchell
In Conversation: William Kentridge and Homi K. Bhabha on ‘A Natural History of the Studio’
Celebrating the opening weekend of ‘William Kentridge. A Natural History of the Studio’ and the release of ‘William Kentridge: Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot’ from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, please join us for a conversation with the artist William Kentridge and Professor of the Humanities in the English Department and Comparative Literature Department at Harvard University, Homi K. Bhabha.
For his inaugural exhibition with Hauser & Wirth in New York, William Kentridge will present his acclaimed nine-episode film series ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot’ and more than forty-five drawings integral to its creation alongside a group of sculptural works. This immersive installation will occupy two floors of the gallery’s 22nd Street building and is the first time the drawings from the film series will be on view to the public.
The eponymous, newly released publication—created in close collaboration with the artist—translates the series into book form and follows special previews of ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot’ at the Toronto International Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival. The complete series of films was first seen in an installation curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev at the Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation in Venice, at the time of the 2024 Venice Biennale.
‘William Kentridge. A Natural History of the Studio’ will also run alongside a selection of prints––representing many bodies of work made over the last two decades––at the gallery’s dedicated editions space on 18th Street.
Signed copies of ‘William Kentridge: Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot’ will be available for purchase at the event.
This program is free; however, reservations are required.
Click here to register.
About William Kentridge
William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his artworks, theater and opera productions. His method combines drawing and erasing, tearing, gestural painting, collage, weaving, casting, writing, film, performance, music, theater and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, yet maintain a space for contradiction and uncertainty.
Born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he currently lives and works, Kentridge grew up under the pall of apartheid. His practice has parsed and questioned the historical record—responding to the past as it ineluctably shapes the present—and created a world within his art that both mirrors and shadows the inequities and absurdities of our own. By employing varied mediums, Kentridge seeks to construct meaning through the use of historical resources, including maps, language and everyday imagery, while always maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty.
About Homi K. Bhabha
Homi K. Bhabha is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities in the English Department and Comparative Literature Department at Harvard University. He served as the director of the Humanities Center at Harvard, founding director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, and in the inaugural position of Senior Advisor to the President and Provost of Harvard University. He is the author of numerous works exploring postcolonial theory, cultural change and power, contemporary art, and cosmopolitanism. His works include The Location of Culture, which was reprinted as a Routledge Classic, and the edited volume Nation and Narration. Bhabha has also written on contemporary art for Artforum and essays on the work of William Kentridge, Anish Kapoor, Taryn Simon, and Matthew Barney, amongst others. With the support of the Volkswagen and Mellon Foundations, Bhabha has led a research project on the Global Humanities. He is a Corresponding Fellow at The British Academy, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and Critic-in-Residence at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1997 he was profiled by Newsweek as one of “100 Americans for the Next Century.” He holds honorary degrees from Université Paris 8, University College London, Freie Universität Berlin, and Stellenbosch University. He has been awarded the Humboldt Research Prize and the Government of India’s Padma Bhushan Presidential Award in the field of literature and education and spoken at the Vatican.
