William Kentridge receives International Folkwang Prize

William Kentridge is being awarded the International Folkwang Prize. Since 2010, the Folkwang-Museumsverein has been awarding the prize to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the promotion and communication of art in the spirit of the museum’s founder Karl Ernst Osthaus (1874–1921). The award ceremony takes place on November 4, 2024 as part of the Folkwang-Museumsverein’s annual reception in Essen. Previous prize-winners include Hans Ulrich Obrist (2015), Okwui Enwezor (2017) and Barbara Klemm (2021).

The artistic work of William Kentridge (*1955), who is from South Africa, has received worldwide attention for decades. Kentridge became internationally renowned in the 1990s with animated short films based on charcoal drawings and thematising the history of South Africa in the 20th century. Drawings remain the basis of his multifaceted oeuvre to this day, which also includes prints, sculpture and tapestry. His art is dedicated to themes such as colonialism and social utopias and takes a stand for human rights and human dignity. Kentridge’s activities in the field of performing arts are inextricably linked to his visual art. He has developed pieces for puppet theatre and directed productions at the world’s major opera houses. For some years now, he has been devising his own chamber operas in close, cross-genre collaboration with composers, musicians, performers and set designers.

In true Folkwang tradition, Kentridge combines art and life and thus transcends the boundaries between the visual and performing arts. For William Kentridge, moreover, communicating the content of art to the public is an integral part of his work, not least in the form of elaborately produced video works that visualise the creative processes involved in the creation of his works in the studio. With The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg—which he founded with Bronwyn Lace in 2016 and which has quickly established itself as a highly regarded artistic laboratory—Kentridge promotes young creative talent and makes an important contribution to the international recognition and communication of artistic positions from the African continent.

William Kentridge states: “I am delighted to receive this prize. I am very pleased to be in the company of Okwui Enweor and Hans Ulrich-Obrist, who have been instrumental in bringing art from outside of Europe into proper consideration and helping us to understand the value of an outside perspective on Europe. In my work over the years, many projects have drawn on German texts and German artists, or texts in the German language. These include an exhibition juxtaposing my work with the work of Dürer in Berlin, to theatre productions based on the work of Büchner and Goethe, and operas by Mozart and Alban Berg (not German by nationality but written in the German language). There have been a number of exhibitions and projects realised at German institutions, and it is a great pleasure to be making an exhibition next year in Essen and Dresden.”

In recognition of these achievements, William Kentridge receives the International Folkwang Prize 2024, endowed with 10,000 euros. The laudatory speech will be held by Marion Ackermann, General Director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. To mark Kentridge’s 70th birthday, Museum Folkwang and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are organising a joint exhibition project with the artist. It will be on show in Essen and Dresden from September 2025 onwards.