"Nothing is quite what it seems in the work of William Kentridge," said Hannah Silver in Wallpaper. The South African artist, born in Johannesburg in 1955, works across a bewildering range of media, "from drawing, to tapestry, theatre, films and opera", to forge a stylistically diverse but distinctive body of art. He is often said to be one of the most significant contemporary artists. Although focused on politics, colonialism and the unreliability of historical narrative, particularly in relation to his native country, Kentridge's art is never heavy-handed or sloganeering: instead, it approaches these weighty subjects in "unexpected, culturally curious ways".
His distinctive "fluidity" and playfulness are present and correct at this new exhibition, which foregrounds his less-well-known work as a sculptor. Bringing together more than 40 sculptures and films created between 2007 and the present, it takes place both indoors and outside, with "bold, sculptural works", some monumental in scale, spread out across the "lush acres" of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in a celebration of "form and scale".
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Kentridge's sculptures, such as his ampersand, are "dark and stark, yet funny and warm", said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. But his films are even better – and there some superb ones on show here. There is an animated history of Soviet Russia, a grippingly "menacing farce". "More Sweetly Play the Dance" (2015) is an "elegy to the victims of Ebola", in which a procession marches through "a blasted landscape" to a soundtrack of jazz and African music, waving banners and sculptures made by Kentridge.
Best of all is "Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot" (2023), an autobiographical documentary in which two versions of the artist himself argue over the details of his life. "As they argue, they draw, and the drawings flow exquisitely" – "remembered landscapes, self- portraits, still lifes". Kentridge is about the only artist today who, like Picasso, can dizzy you "with the abundance of his creativity".
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