Enter a new, immersive world by the multi-sensory artist and global creative powerhouse William Kentridge, in our major autumn exhibition.
• This exhibition will be open until 9pm on Friday evenings. • Our galleries, shops and restaurants close at 6pm Tuesday–Thursday and at 9pm on Friday. • Download our large print guide.
Over the last decade, our single artist shows have captured the imagination of the public. Always large in scale, ambitious in scope and astonishing in execution, we’ve seen artists including Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley take on our Main Galleries. This autumn, it’s the turn of William Kentridge, South Africa’s most celebrated living artist.
Kentridge’s globally acclaimed practice spans across etching, drawing, collage, film and sculpture to tapestry, theatre, opera, dance and music. The Johannesburg-born artist developed his early work during the apartheid regime of the 1980s, and his electrifying large-scale productions and animations have since been shown across the world.
Transforming the Main Galleries, this is the biggest exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK. Many pieces have never been seen before, and some have been made specifically for the show. Spanning a 40-year career, you will find rooms of 4-metre wide tapestries, his signature charcoal trees and flowers, and the breath-taking three-screen film, Notes Towards a Model Opera. Watch as typewriters turn into trees, a hunted rhino somersaults with a megaphone, and a coffee plunger drills into the depths of a goldmine.
Don’t miss the immersive art experience of the year.
Exhibition supported by The William Kentridge Supporters Circle: Wendy Fisher & A4 Arts Foundation, Goodman Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery, Stephen Gosztony, Yoav Gottesman, Simone Krok, Lia Rumma Gallery, Fundació Sorigué and those who wish to remain anonymous.
This exhibition contains images that some visitors might find upsetting. Please contact us for more information.
Tues–Sun: 10am–6pm
Fri: 10am–9pm
Tickets £22 - £24.50 (£20-22 without donation). Concessions available. For the best experience, book ahead.
Main Galleries, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts
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William Kentridge, De Como Não Fui Ministro D’Estado, 2012.
William Kentridge, Video still from Notes Towards a Model Opera, 2015.
William Kentridge, The Conservationist’s Ball, triptych, 1985.
William Kentridge, Video still from Sibyl, 2019.
Willliam Kentridge, Comrade Tree, I Report to You, 2020.
William Kentridge, Colleoni, 2021.
William Kentridge, Drawing for The Head & The Load (The trumpets we used to blow), 2018.
William Kentridge, Enough of this Scandal, 2020.
“Keeping an open-endedness, working with uncertainty right until the end…”
Take a tour of the exhibition with William Kentridge as he discussed the inspirations, processes and ambitions behind his artworks and immersive installations.
“When you’re doing an exhibition there are many hours when nothing happens… so you either need a bed to sleep on or a wall to draw on.”
William Kentridge found a way to stay entertained while we built his blockbuster show in the Royal Academy Main Galleries – by drawing onto our 400-year old walls.
William Kentridge’s 40-year career combines drawing, writing, theatre, puppetry, opera, film, dance, sculpture, tapestry and performance.
While his immersive, spectacular work fills our Main Galleries we’ve taken a closer look at 10 artworks by the visionary South African artist.
Artist William Kentridge found a way to stay entertained while we built his blockbuster show in the Royal Academy Main Galleries – by drawing onto our 400-year old walls. See what he created here…
William Kentridge’s drawings, animations and installations bear witness to the history of his native South Africa. As his art expands across the Royal Academy’s galleries, take a deep dive into his immersive hand-drawn world.
Globally acclaimed artist William Kentridge guides us through his exhibition, discussing the inspirations, processes and ambitions behind his immersive installations.
With William Kentridge filling our Main Galleries with his immersive, spectacular work, here we take a closer look at 10 artworks by the visionary South African artist.
With William Kentridge’s epic works filling our galleries, we’ve been looking back at some of the extraordinary things artists have done with our 350-year-old building.
William Kentridge has been experimenting with materials and storytelling since the 1980s. Here’s everything you need to know about the South African artist.
From Francis Bacon’s eerie reflections on man and beast, to South Africa’s most celebrated living artist William Kentridge, our 2022 programme gives everyone something to look forward to.