Princess of Asturias Arts Prize given to South African artist

South African artist, William Kentridge was on Thursday named as the winner of the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, the Princess of Asturias Foundation confirmed.

Kentridge was born in Johannesburg in 1955 to parents who were lawyers specialized in defending apartheid victims and his father, Sir Sydney Kentridge was the defense council for Nelson Mandela.

Described by the Princess of Asturias website as "a meticulous and profound creator" Kentridge has used drawing and hand-drawn animated films as "a vehicle for expressing emotions and metaphors related to South African history and its socio-political reality".

From 2003 he began to expand his interests into sculpture and video installations and has been the subject of exhibitions in the MoMA (New York), the Albertina Museum (Vienna), the Louvre (Paris) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, among others.

The Arts Award is the first of eight Princess of Asturias awards to be decided in the coming weeks.

The Awards, which are now in their 37th year of existence, aim to recognize "the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions".

They cover a series of categories which also include literature, social services, communications and humanities, technical and scientific research, international cooperation, concord and sports.

The award winners receive a cash prize of 50,000 euros (55,000 U.S. dollars) and a sculpture from Spanish artist Juan Miro in a ceremony which is held in the city of Oviedo (northern Spain) every October. Endit