To achieve this seemingly eternal depth of color, Idris Khan slathered on 15 layers of handmade gesso.

Artist Idris Khan’s timely and timeless Integration of Hope, 2021 is a site-specific installation that transcends its materials and painstaking technique to stir the soul. As I report in my latest piece for Interior Design, the work was commissioned by LSM for the London office of international law firm Milbank: “Composed of 15 layers of hand-mixed gesso—consisting of slate and marble dust, Prussian blue, and ultramarine pigments—the result is a violet tone so intense that it can only be described as sonorous. What looks like a color study from afar takes on new meaning as one draws closer and realizes that Khan has used oil paint to hand-stamp overlapping words and phrases that express his ideas about diversity and inclusion into an abstract, universal language.” For a cool 3D perspective, click here.