Films
The Question of Instability
William Kentridge on Max Beckmann
Watch a new short film by William Kentridge in which he anatomizes Max Beckmann’s magisterial and mysterious 1938 painting Death (Tod), on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition “Max Beckmann” at Hauser & Wirth in Basel on June 4. Beckmann's meditation on mortality interests Kentridge, he says, in part because it is “a reversal picture. One is not certain what it top and what is bottom, what is heaven and what is hell.”
–
“Max Beckmann” is on view at Hauser & Wirth Basel from 4 June through 11 July 2026.
–
William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his artworks, theater and opera productions. He combines drawing and erasing, tearing, gestural painting, collage, weaving, casting, writing, film, performance, music, theater and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history.