William Kentridge's latest exhibition, 'A Natural History of the Studio,' at Hauser & Wirth in New York presents over 70 drawings from his nine-part film series 'Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot,' alongside new sculptures. The works, created during the pandemic, explore self-portraiture through charcoal, pastel, and collage, often featuring doppelgängers that argue and disagree, reflecting the artist's engagement with theater and the materiality of his forms.
The exhibition matters because it offers a comprehensive view of Kentridge's meditative process on how art and identity are constructed, bringing together for the first time all the drawings from the film series that originally streamed on Mubi. It underscores Kentridge's enduring influence as a South African artist who uses self-portraiture to probe deeper questions about memory, erasure, and the multiplicity of the self, while also highlighting the ongoing dialogue between his studio practice and public exhibition.