South African Artist William Kentridge to Deliver Public Lecture Feb. 9 at Cooper Union s Great Hall

Internationally renowned South African artist William Kentridge will deliver a public lecture, “A Universal Archive…with Some Remarks on Black Holes,” on Tues., Feb. 9, 8 p.m., at Cooper Union’s Great Hall (7 East 7th Street at Bowery). Subways: 6 (Astor Place), R, W (8th Street).

The event is free and open to the public, which may call 212.998.8796 for more information. Photo ID is required for entry. Reporters interested in attending must RSVP to James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu, or Jolene Travis, Cooper Union’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.353.4158 or jolene@cooper.edu.

Kentridge is known for his stop-motion films of charcoal drawings as well as for works in etching, collage, sculpture, and the performing arts. An exhibition of three decades of Kentridge’s works will be at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (Feb. 24-May 17) later this year. In March, Kentridge will direct a production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera “The Nose” at the Metropolitan Opera House.

The son of one of South Africa’s most prominent anti-apartheid lawyers, Sir Sidney Kentridge, William Kentridge made a cycle of films that allegorize South Africa’s political upheavals through the lives of three characters: a greedy property developer, his neglected wife, and her poet lover. The eight-minute animation, Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris (1989), which began the series, consists of two dozen scenes developed through minute changes to various drawings.

The lecture is co-sponsored by NYU’s Department of Comparative Literature, Tisch School of the Arts, and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication as well as the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union.