Featuring about 40 works in a range of media — including animated films, drawings, prints, theater models, sculptures, and books — William Kentridge: Five Themes is co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Curated by Mark Rosenthal, adjunct curator of modern art at the Norton Museum of Art, in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition brings viewers up to date on the artist’s work over the past decade, exploring how his subject matter has evolved from the specific context of South Africa to more universal stories. In recent years, Kentridge has dramatically expanded both the scope of his projects (such as recent full-scale opera productions) and their thematic concerns, which now include his own studio practice, colonialism in Namibia and Ethiopia, and the cultural history of postrevolutionary Russia. His newer work is based on an intensive exploration of themes connected to his own life experience, as well as the political and social issues that most concern him.

“Five Themes” at Jeu de Paume
Kentridge at Jeu de Paume’s Bookshop