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This exhibition brought together the work of two of South Africa’s foremost visual artists, William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland. Kentridge and Koorland come from the same generation of South African artists. Born in the 1950s, they first met as university students in the mid-1970s and have been talking about art ever since. This exhibition foregrounded a friendship of forty years and a dialogue which has been mutually enriching as the practice of each has informed that of the other.

Kentridge is known for his animated films, complex narratives and beguiling imagery drawn and redrawn in charcoal, pastel and paint. Koorland makes huge paintings that are palimpsests of found and original material, both text and imagery. The works of the two artists are very different, yet there is much they share.

The selection of works for the exhibition highlighted the formal and thematic links between the work of Kentridge and Koorland, mapping their artistic friendship through shared artistic strategies and a common sense of the urgency and agency of art.

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Listen to William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland: Artists’ Talk with exhibition curator Tamar Garb

Images: Ruth Clark