William Kentridge: The Pull of Gravity – a 'bold' exhibition

Ampersand (2019) by William Kentridge at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Ampersand (2019): a celebration of 'form and scale'

(Image credit: Jonty Wilde)

"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".

For all his restless experimentation, Kentridge's style is "unmistakable", said Nancy Durrant in The Times. He has constructed "a unique visual lexicon": he often begins with a drawing, then tears the shapes from the paper and adapts them to his chosen medium. He uses "everyday objects such as hand tools" and turns them into sculpture, in the tradition of Picasso: one sculpture from 2021 was a mess of bronze coils until he realised it resembled a goat; so he added a goat's head, in open-ended homage to the Spanish master. Another work is "a mass of bronze scribbles" which, seen from one angle, resembles "a scrawny cat"; from another, a coffee pot. Still other pieces began life as "kinetic props" for his theatre productions: the "captivating" "Singer Trio" (2019) consists of three sewing machines attached to gramophone horns. They really do "sing at you when you approach".

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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".