William Kentridge is an extraordinary visual artist who uses drawing，film，performance，music and sculpture to probe the ideas and conventions of our world; seeking its hidden truths and dismantling its false certainties.
He was born to a Jewish immigrant family in South Africa. His parents were lawyers who were actively involved with anti-apartheid activists and activities during the apartheid period. It was in that environment that he was raised and although he would proceed down a path different from his parents and grandparents，who had also been lawyers，it ensured that he was，as he says，“able to understand the world in a manner different from that under arguments based on the law，and could build a moral relationship with society.”
After obtaining his degree in political science at a university in Johannesburg，he studied theater in Paris，and for a while sought to become an actor but finally returned to South Africa in his late 30s，starting his artistic career with his ‘moving drawings’.  These ‘moving drawings’ allow for partial additions and erasures to be made to a series of charcoal drawings that are then filmed one frame at a time and linked together to form a video. While this style of animation is simple in contrast to more modern，technically-sophisticated styles，it captures the profundity of time and has an expressiveness filled with hidden meanings.
Among the works in Kentridge’s Nine Drawings for Projection series (1989-ongoing)，that garnered him worldwide acclaim，it is Felix in Exile that can be seen to be of greatest note. With influence of German Expressionism and Dada echoing through the work created in 1994，the year in which South Africa had its first democratic elections，it contains a striking scene of dead bodies disappearing from the landscape.
“While I knew that the elections would be followed by celebration，I couldn’t help but think about how the memory of the people who died before that and their sacrifice would vanish. In the same way，scenery proceeds to cover up what occurred in the past. In that sense，I felt that scenery and memory are much alike.”
Felix in Exile brings the pain of a dark history that melted into the scenery and was no longer visible back to the surface，yet also reminds us that the sight and memory of man is impermanent and uncertain.
Themes of change，memory，and time recur，and his ideas migrate from one type of work to another.  Increasingly，Kentridge is creating complex，multi-discipline art that involves a multi-layered fusion of sound，music，dance and film; procession and silhouettes play a key role.  His epic piece，The Head and the Load (2018)，examining the role of African soldiers in the First World War，has been universally acclaimed. Lying beneath these works is an opposition to dictatorships and colonialism and an intellectual pursuit of the pathology behind them.
Inventive and humorous，this Johannesburg-based artist is in demand all over the world. His diverse output resonates widely，and after 40 years，his search for a truer world still drives him.
Kentridge has been recognized with Japan’s Kyoto Prize in 2010，France’s Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013 and Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award in 2017.