William KentridgeThe Battle Between YES and NO
The Battle Between YES and NO is the first major exhibition in Czechia dedicated to William Kentridge, one of the most celebrated artists of our time. Raised in Johannesburg during apartheid, in a family deeply committed to social justice, Kentridge became involved in anti-apartheid activism as a student. These experiences shaped an artistic practice that reflects South Africa’s social and historical tensions while speaking to universal human themes.
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His work draws on a wide range of references such as his own biography, politics, art history, science, literature, and music, creating a visual language rooted in imagination, ambiguity, and play. Over more than four decades, he has developed a distinctive approach that embraces improvisation and the unknown.
Kentridge’s work has been exhibited around the world, including the MoMA in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He has participated in Documenta (1997, 2002, 2012) and the Venice Biennale (1993–2015). In 2016, he founded The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, dedicated to cross-disciplinary creation, experimentation, and collective thinking.
Designed as a spatial collage, the exhibition unfolds like a constellation of interconnected fragments. It traces Kentridge’s path from early charcoal films to his recent multidisciplinary projects, revealing his belief in complexity as an antidote to rigid certainty. While grounded in the South African experience, his work addresses universal concerns and emotions such as guilt, longing, despair, and the fragility of hope, resonating strongly with today’s world marked by political polarization, and the danger of uncompromising beliefs.
Bringing together international loans and works from the Kunsthalle Praha Collection, The Battle Between YES and NO presents early animated films from the Drawings for Projection series (1989–2020), evoking South Africa’s transition out of apartheid, alongside theatrical works such as the kinetic model Right Into Her Arms (2016) and O Sentimental Machine (2015), a project addressing failed utopias. The exhibition also includes To Cross One More Sea (2024), a recent video installation reflecting on exile and displacement, and works created specifically for Prague, such as the A Letter to Felice (2026).
A publication A Natural History of the Studio accompanies the exhibition. Adapted from the transcription of Kentridge’s 2024 Slade Lectures at the University of Oxford, it offers a deep insight into his creative process. The Czech edition, published in collaboration with Éditions Cosee, includes a curatorial text by Christelle Havranek.
The exhibition is initiated by Kunsthalle Praha and realized in collaboration with the artist, William Kentridge Studio and exhibition designer Squatelier.
Artist Bio
William Kentridge (b. 1955, Johannesburg, South Africa) is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions.
In 2024, in Venice, Kentridge premiered a new nine-episode video series, 'Self-Portriait as a Coffee Pot,' - a site-specific installation curated by long-time collaborator and curator Carolyn Christov Bakargiev at the Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation. Following this, in October, MUBI presented: William Kentridge’s, ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot’ Premiere in New York.
In conjunction with the world premiere of his newly commissioned opera, 'The Great Yes, The Great No,' which debuted at LUMA Arles in July 2024, the solo exhibition, 'Je n’attends plus' (I’m Not Waiting Any Longer) presents a collection of major works, some of which had not been seen in Europe before.
Kentridge’s largest UK survey to date was held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2022. An iteration of Kentridge's Royal Academy survey opened at the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts in May 2024. In the same year Kentridge opened another major survey exhibition, 'In Praise of Shadows,' at The Broad, Los Angeles. In 2023, this exhibition traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
In 2025, he presented The Pull of Gravity at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which marked the first museum presentation outside South Africa to focus on his sculpture.
Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums across the globe since the 1990s, including the Luma Foundation, France (2024); Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation, Venice (2024); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2024); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1999, 2005, 2010); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2010); Musée du Louvre, Paris (2010); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (2015); Kunstmuseum Basel (2019); Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2019). The artist has also participated in biennale’s including Documenta in Kassel (2012, 2002, 1997) and the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2005, 1999, 1993).
Collections include: MoMA, New York; Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi and Zeitz MoCAA, Cape Town.
Kentridge lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
