Souffleur, what is Lapis lazuli?

SOUFFLEUR

Lapis lazuli

Art, like all domains, has its own vocabulary. In 'Souffleur', M staff explain specialist terms that may sound familiar to you but perhaps no have forgotten what they mean, or you never did know.

Saar De Permentier, exhibition coordinator: “Lapis lazuli is a deep blue rock from which the pigment ultramarine has been extracted since ancient times. It was mined in what is now Afghanistan, and from there it spread to Europe via the Silk Road.”

“From one kilogram of lapis lazuli, you could extract barely 20 to 30 grams of ultramarine. That made it extremely expensive – in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it was even more costly than gold. As a result, it was reserved for images of saints and, in particular, for the Virgin Mary’s cloak. Synthetic variants became available from the 19th century onwards.”

“A room in Alicja Kwade’s exhibition at M is dedicated to this rare material. The walls are painted with pigment mixed with real lapis lazuli, and an enormous block of the stone is also on display. Kwade sees it as a time capsule that returns us to geological processes millions of years old. At the same time, she invites us to reflect on how we assign value to objects and materials such as precious stones. According to her, that value is not absolute but culturally determined.”