Internationally acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge has produced a vast body of interrelated work in drawing, printmaking, sculpture, film, theatre, opera, and puppetry. This exhibition presents more than 75 original linocuts from an ongoing series the artist began in 2012. Featuring a repertoire of images frequently used by Kentridge across media—trees, coffee pots, cats, typewriters, birds, horses, self-portraits— Universal Archive explores how the interplay of text and images serves as a metaphor for the interaction between rational and creative processes.
William Kentridge: Universal Archive is organized for tour by the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College and is made possible, in part, by contributions from Alva Greenberg '74, the Gund Gallery Board of Directors and Ohio Arts Council. Funding for the exhibition at the Art Museum of WVU is provided by the Friends of the Art Museum, William and Linda Hagerty and the Joyce Ice Fund for Acquisitions and Exhibitions.