William Kentridge Arts Festival Will Present The Centre For The Less Good Idea's First U.S. Performances Next Month

Internationally renowned artist William Kentridge will speak in Milwaukee and participate in open rehearsals of three plays during The Warehouse Art Museum's (WAM) multimedia "Kentridge Arts Festival."

The Centre for the Less Good Idea, a Johannesburg-based organization founded by William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace in 2016, is honored to announce that their appearances in Milwaukee will mark their first time ever performing in the U.S. The three plays will be presented at the Broadway Theatre Center, in partnership with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Following his Milwaukee stay, William Kentridge will attend exhibitions and performances in Los Angeles (The Broad) and Miami (Art Basel).

In addition, Present Music will present a cine concert with rarely seen animated films and installations by Kentridge at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM). World premiere of new musical arrangements by South African composer and longtime Kentridge collaborator Philip Miller will accompany the films and be performed live by Present Music. A song cycle based on the poetry of Eliza Kentridge, composed by Miller and newly commissioned by Jan Serr & John Shannon, will be performed by South African opera singers Ann Masina (soprano) and Tshegofatso Moeng (baritone) alongside Present Music in this world premiere. Additionally, Philip Miller and Eliza Kentridge will participate in a pre-concert conversation in Lubar Hall at MAM. Present Music is one of the nation's leading ensembles specializing in the commissioning and performance of new music. The public can attend the events in person or via livestream.

The Milwaukee festival includes an array of visual arts, film, theater, music, poetry and lectures by or related to Kentridge and his works. WAM founders Jan Serr and John Shannon, champions of Kentridge's artistry, are curating the festival.

The festival complements WAM's comprehensive art exhibition, William Kentridge: See for Yourself, which is on view now through Dec. 16. The show features over 100 works from 47 years of the artist's career in numerous media, including film, with an emphasis on his interactive practice. Guest-curated from WAM's private collection by Melanie Herzog, this exhibition features exclusive works that have never been exhibited before.

The full schedule for the Kentridge Art Festival can be found at WAMmke.org/programming.

Kentridge was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1955. While best known for his animated films and opera work, Kentridge also creates linocuts, etchings, monotypes, screen-printed theater posters, charcoal drawings, etchings, lithographs, sculptural objects and interactive pieces. His art is partially informed by the apartheid in South Africa, which existed until the early 1990s. Local connections with Kentridge include the Milwaukee Art Museum's 2018 show William Kentridge: More Sweetly Play the Dance and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's 2013 exhibition MCA DNA: William Kentridge.

At the same time as the Warhouse Art Museum's show, The Royal Academy (London) and the Broad (Los Angeles) have mounted major retrospective exhibitions of Kentridge's work.

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