WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Honorary Doctorate RECIPIENT 2021

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

DOCTOR PHILOSOPHIAE

William Kentridge is one of the most celebrated artists globally. Over more than four decades, he opposed apartheid through his artistic work and cultural interventions.

Kentridge inspired the formation of the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects that enabled partnerships between UWC and the world-famous Handspring Puppet Company. His life’s work partly motivated the proposal for the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance held by Professor Jane Taylor at the UWC Centre for Humanities Research. Kentridge’s production of Ubu and the Truth Commission, co-written with Jane Taylor, was performed around the world.

Kentridge has been one of the most sought-after public voices on questions around visual culture, aesthetics and the human. His lecture performances have attracted global interest and are generating a profound aesthetic and political renewal as he draws together questions about the history of science, colonialism and aesthetic theory. The Standard Bank Young Artist in 1987, he has won numerous other awards, including the Kyoto Award and the Carnegie Prize. This honorary degree was awarded jointly by UWC, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and Ghent University on 17 November 2021.