William Kentridge and the exhibition record since Prague
Published on 08/31/2026 at 13:29 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
William Kentridge has spent the past year moving large-scale installations, sculptures and films through European museums and festival halls, from Prague to Ravello and Dresden. His exhibition The Battle Between YES and NO at Kunsthalle Praha and the Ravello Festival project at Villa Rufolo frame how drawing, theater and music intertwine in his recent work.
The Prague exhibition in detail
Kunsthalle Praha describes The Battle Between YES and NO as the first major exhibition in Czechia devoted to William Kentridge, installed across Gallery 1 and 2 with a focus on his filmic and sculptural staging of doubt and belief. The exhibition runs in Prague’s historic power-station building, placing his projected images and mechanical figures against industrial architecture.
The Prague show groups works that translate hand-drawn animation into immersive environments, including multi-screen projections where silhouetted figures march across the walls and sculptural assemblages that echo stage props. The curatorial text by Christelle Havranek emphasizes how recurring motifs of procession, erasure and fragmented speech carry through the rooms.
Exhibition & show links across Europe
Alongside Prague, William Kentridge appears in the 74th edition of the Ravello Festival at Villa Rufolo, where the Ravello Foundation and Lia Rumma Gallery present an exhibition built around the artist’s overlapping use of music, theater and image. The announcement notes that the show at Villa Rufolo treats performance and drawing as one continuous creative process rather than separate disciplines.
His calendar also lists the long-running project Listen to the Echo with Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, where works are distributed between the Puppentheatersammlung at Kraftwerk Mitte and other Dresden venues, extending his presence in German museum spaces over several months. These exhibitions mark a sustained institutional focus on his work rather than isolated showings.
All news and background on William Kentridge
Readers can trace William Kentridge’s recent exhibitions, museum projects and festival appearances in the AD HOC NEWS archive, from Prague to Ravello and beyond.
The work core in recent shows
Across these exhibitions, William Kentridge continues to probe how history and memory surface through drawing, collage and projection. Works like the multi-channel procession pieces and sculptural installations shown in Prague build on his long-standing interest in unfinished marks, palimpsest images and layered sound.
Institutional texts stress that his museum and festival projects rarely separate moving image from object or performance; instead, drawings transform into animated films, which then reappear as physical props, costumes or mechanical sculptures. This looping process underpins his exhibitions from German museums to Italian festival halls as they frame his practice for broad audiences.
Where William Kentridge stands now
By late August 2026 William Kentridge holds a strong presence in European institutional programming, with the Prague exhibition and the Ravello Festival project underscoring his position as a key figure in cross-disciplinary art at the intersection of drawing, cinema and staged performance.
William Kentridge at a glance
- Artist: William Kentridge
- Medium / Genre: Drawing, animation, installation and film-based work
- Born: 1955, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Place(s) of practice: Studio-based practice anchored in Johannesburg with extensive exhibition activity across European institutions
- Active since: Late 1970s as a practicing artist, with international recognition growing from the early 1990s onward through animated films and drawings
- Key work groups: Drawings for Projection, Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot, More Sweetly Play the Dance, The Battle Between YES and NO
- Current/last exhibition: The Battle Between YES and NO - Kunsthalle Praha, Prague - April 16, 2026 to September 7, 2026
- Major collections: Works by William Kentridge are held by institutions including Museum Folkwang in Essen, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which has focused on his sculpture.
- Awards: William Kentridge has received major international recognition, including prominent biennial invitations and museum retrospectives marking his 70th birthday.
- Next date: His recent calendar centers on institutional projects in Prague and Ravello within the 2026 European exhibition season.
Frequently asked questions about William Kentridge
Where is William Kentridge currently on view in Europe?
William Kentridge’s work is prominently on view in Prague at Kunsthalle Praha in the exhibition The Battle Between YES and NO, which uses multiple galleries to stage his filmic and sculptural treatment of doubt and belief.
What defines the Prague exhibition The Battle Between YES and NO?
The Kunsthalle Praha show presents William Kentridge’s installations, projections and mechanical sculptures in Gallery 1 and 2, with curator Christelle Havranek emphasizing recurring motifs of procession, erasure and fragmented speech across the rooms.
How does the Ravello Festival project frame William Kentridge’s practice?
The Ravello Foundation, working with Lia Rumma Gallery, describes William Kentridge’s Villa Rufolo exhibition as grounded in a single creative process where music, theater and image operate together, aligning performance and drawing within a festival context.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
