William Kentridge, the South African artist whose self-professed “stone-age” animations have dealt with apartheid and its legacy as seen through the lives of humanistically-sketched individuals, was selected as the winner of this year’s Kyoto Prize. The award, similar in status to Nobel Prize in Japan, is bestowed annually by the Inamori Foundation to recognize three visionaries in the categories of arts and philosophy, advanced technology, and basic sciences.

Kentridge currently has a traveling retrospective titled “Five Themes,” which features his charcoal drawings and animated projections. Originally organized by SFMOMA and the Norton Museum of Art, the survey recently appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is now en route to Paris and will be on view at the Jeu de Paume from June 29 to September 5 before traveling to the Albertine Museum in Vienna. The artist’s work is also being exhibited alongside pieces by Alighiero Boetti, Anish Kapoor and Sol LeWitt in the group show “Spazio” at the National Museum of 21 Century Arts in Rome.

William Kentridge, Middle Aged Love, 2002, Lithography, 197.5X130 cm

William Kentridge, Zeno at 4am, 2001, suite of 9, sugarlift and etching, 24.5X19.5 cm