Internationally renowned for his stop motion animations made from charcoal drawings, South African artist William Kentridge’s drawings for his new nine-part film series are the focus of his first New York solo show at Hauser & Wirth Gallery. “The studio can be understood as an expanded head,” the artist says by way of introduction to ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot,’ a show that likens the artist’s creative process to percolating coffee. Though the films play one-by-one in the back gallery, visitors first encounter drawings and work on paper that emerged from enforced studio time during the Covid lockdown. Here, a full wall drawing featuring peonies (‘a backdrop for conversation in the studio’ according to Kentridge), Leon Trotsky’s head and the words ‘Let Me Live Again’ appear over pages from an accounts ledger, not only nodding to a recent project considering Russian composer Dimitri Shostavovich’s relationship with authoritarian power but generally touching on themes of freedom, renewal and power. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 1st).
