William Kentridge's Studio Philosophy and New Book on Lapis Blue

William Kentridge, the South African artist known for his six-decade practice spanning printmaking, drawing, animation, and sculpture, describes his studio as a 'safe space for stupidity.' He has released a new book based on a 2024 lecture at Oxford, with an exclusive excerpt on Hyperallergic focusing on lapis lazuli pigment. Kentridge recounts receiving a block of pure lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, a precious pigment used sparingly in Renaissance painting, now largely replaced by French ultramarine. He notes that lapis has an intense blueness unmatched by synthetic colors, but its power is lost in projections, photography, and printing. Although he does not use color in his drawings, he painted squares and circles to test the pigment, then began painting texts and phrases with it while waiting to integrate it into his work. The newsletter also covers Upstate Art Weekend in New York's Hudson Valley and Catskills, featuring a Betty Parsons retrospective and tailgate-style exhibitions; Trump's interference with the Venice Biennale of Architecture; an interview with painter Richard Tsao; Modigliani's nude selling for $63.9M; the National Gallery of Art receiving a major contemporary art gift; and a member comment praising an article on collector James Wagner.