“O Sentimental Machine”: A Belknap Public Lecture by William Kentridge
Humanities Council; Princeton University Art Museum, William Kentridge, artist
October 14, 2015 · 5:00 pm · 10 McCosh
South African artist William Kentridge, the Belknap Visitor for 2015–16 in the Humanities, delivers a public lecture in A reception will follow at the Princeton University Art Museum and is open to the public.
Kentridge’s art draws on a range of sources, from philosophy and literature to early cinema, theater and opera. He first gained acclaim in the 1990s for distinctive stop-motion animations, using torn cardboard and charcoal drawings, which often reflected his experiences in South Africa during apartheid and its aftermath. His work has been displayed around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Musee du Louvre, Paris. His new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu will open at the Metropolitan Opera in New York next month.
To celebrate the visit, the Princeton University Art Museum has placed two of the artist’s works on view: Atlas Procession I (2000), which features a sequence of calligraphic figures and marks In the round (etching, aquatint, drypoint, and letterpress) and Typewriter IV(2011), a collage of ink on found pages.
The Humanities Council’s Belknap Visitors in the Humanities was created to recognize distinguished individuals in the arts and letters. Past visitors have been Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nadine Gordimer, Roy Lichtenstein, Athol Fugard, Doris Lessing, John Updike, Edward Albee, Czeslaw Milosz, Carlos Fuentes, Frank Stella, Robertson Davies, Peter Sellars, Arthur Miller, Merce Cunningham, Harold Pinter, Adrienne Rich, Maurice Sendak, Wim Wenders, Richard Serra, Chuck Close, Twyla Tharp, Ricky Jay, Toshiko Takaezu, Meryl Streep, Roz Chast, Alice Waters, David Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Frank Rich, Andrew Solomon, and Maya Lin. Belknap Visitors spend an intensive day on campus.
