Avenali Lectures

The Avenali Chair is occupied for a part of each year by a distinguished visiting scholar whose work is of interest to faculty and students in a range of humanistic fields. The Avenali Lectures are made possible by the generous gift of Peter and Joan Avenali, who endowed the Avenali Chair in the Humanities in memory of family members.

Avenali Chair in the Humanities 2008-2009

William Kentridge, artist
“Learning from the Absurd”

Sunday, March 15, 2009
5:00 pm | Hertz Concert Hall

 

Follow-up panel discussion with William Kentridge
Monday, March 16, 2009
12:00 pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

Panelists: Kaja Silverman (Rhetoric and Film Studies), Larry Rinder (Berkeley Art Museum), and Mark Rosenthal (Norton Museum of Art)
Moderated by Anthony J. Cascardi, Townsend Center Director

This event is free and open to the public, but requires a ticket. Tickets will be distributed at the door beginning at 4:00 pm. Doors will open at 4:30 pm, and we ask that patrons be in their seats by 5:00 pm.

With an innovative use of charcoal drawing, prints, collages, stop-animation, film and theater, South African artist William Kentridge’s work continues to attract international recognition. Especially distinctive are his hand-drawn films, which are created using a technique he calls "stone-age filmmaking.” In both these “drawings for projection” and in his other work, Kentridge explores themes of apartheid, colonialism, social conflict, and both personal and cultural memory.

Kentridge’s appointment as Townsend Avenali lecturer coincides with the March 14th premier of William Kentridge: Five Themes at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Click here for more information on William Kentridge.