Legacy Award 2024
Duration
1 hour 15 min
Presented to William Kentridge
Opening Speaker in the Strauss & Co Series of Talks and Presentations
The annual FynArts Legacy Award is presented at the discretion of the Advisory Board in honour of a longstanding and distinctive contribution to the arts in South Africa and beyond. Acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions, William’s work spans a diverse range of artistic media including painting, drawing, writing, performance, animation, film, puppetry, printmaking, tapestry and sculpture.
Through these media he creates art grounded in politics, science, literature and history, and transmutes political events into powerful poetic allegories. An artist of international standing in the study of the visual arts, William is the 2023/2024 Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University.
Apart from his work having been seen in major galleries and museums around the world he has designed and directed a number of acclaimed theatrical productions performed in theatres across the globe, as well as operas staged in, amongst others, the Metropoltan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, Opera de Lyon, Amsterdam Opera, and the Sydney Opera House.
William is the recipient of honorary doctorates from a number of prestigious universities. Among the more recent prizes and awards bestowed on him are the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize (2018) and the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2023).