Two international exhibitions will showcase the work of artists from around the world in 2022 WorldAhead
William Kentridge, a world-renowned sculptor, performance artist and film-maker, caught covid-19. The South African had been working at the Centre for the Less Good Idea, an incubator space for performers he had opened in 2016 in central Johannesburg. Forced to isolate after he and some of his fellow dancers and musicians tested positive, he took to working in the small artist’s studio he had built at the bottom of the garden at his family home in Houghton.
Covid-19 was the cause of much suffering. But for many artists—especially those whose global reputations meant they were almost constantly on the road—it has been a blessing, offering an unexpected chance to think and work uninterrupted for months on end. Sir Harrison Birtwistle, an 87-year-old British composer, has been concentrating on a new opera.