Glenn Ligon Quotes

Glenn Ligon
American Artist
Born: 1960
About Art Black People Time Work
Related authors: Andy Warhol Jackson Pollock Jean-Michel Basquiat Jeff Koons Kehinde Wiley Keith Haring Yoko Ono
Black and white is so familiar. It's how we see the printed word in books, so it's kind of neutral in a way. Yet it's ironic that black and white is so charged socially, what with its association with race. Glenn Ligon
Word Black Black And White White Books Way Kind Charged See Neutral Printed How Familiar Ironic Race Socially Association
I don't know if I would describe myself as a political artist. Glenn Ligon
Myself Political Would Know Artist Describe
Art points to things. It's a way of giving people not the standard way of looking at the world. Glenn Ligon
Art People World Giving Looking Way Points Standard Things
I really don't have a clear trajectory at all. Glenn Ligon
Clear Trajectory Really
What I realized is that my interest in literature has more deeply structured my practice than I thought. Glenn Ligon
Thought Practice More Structured Than Literature Interest Realized Deeply
It's an artist's job to always have their antennas up. Glenn Ligon
Job Always Up Artist
An artwork is an arrangement of things. The ideal show for me would be if everything touched, literally touched, so that everything would blur together. Glenn Ligon
Me Together Everything Would Would-Be Touched Ideal Arrangement Artwork Literally Blur Show Things
There is an imagined thing called black culture. But culture is a construction. It is learned behavior, not innate. The black American experience is the American experience. Glenn Ligon
Construction Culture Experience Behavior Black Learned American American Experience Thing Innate Imagined
Artists such as Lorna Simpson, Zoe Leonard, Byron Kim and Stephen Andrews and I are around the same age, and I know them personally. The discussions I have had with them over the years have influenced the work that I have made throughout my career. Glenn Ligon
Work Age Made Kim Throughout Had Simpson Over Know Around Years Discussions Same Same Age Artists Influenced Them Personally Career
In 2011, 'Yourself in the World,' a book of my writings and interviews, was published in conjunction with a retrospective of my work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Glenn Ligon
Work Art Yourself Book World Interviews Writings Retrospective American Whitney Conjunction Published Museum
I like having a studio to go to. It's like having a job. Glenn Ligon
Job Having Studio Like Go
In high school, driver's ed was at the same time as drama class. And I had to take drama class. Now I can sing the lead in 'Oklahoma!,' but I can't drive. Glenn Ligon
Time Class School Drive Drama Oklahoma High High School Take Driver Lead Had Sing Same Same Time Now
My mother used to say that when I told her that I wanted to be an artist, her famous line was, 'The only artists I've ever heard of are dead.' It just wasn't in her experience... I don't think she had a sense that one could be an artist, because there wasn't anyone in my family who had done that. Glenn Ligon
Family Experience Mother Sense Think Say Only Could Had Dead She Because Line Heard Artist Done Just Artists Famous Wanted Anyone Used Who Ever Her
I took a very small image and blew it up to enormous scale. What happens when you do that is that the information in the image starts to become indistinct. The image darkens. Glenn Ligon
You Become Starts Enormous Took Scale Small Blew Up Very Happens Information Image
'A Small Band' was commissioned for the facade of the Central Pavilion at the Fifty-Sixth Venice Biennale in 2013. Glenn Ligon
Band Facade Small Venice Commissioned Central
I met Obama once, backstage at the Apollo in Harlem. Glenn Ligon
Met Once Backstage Obama Apollo Harlem
Things like Ferguson and Eric Garner show us there's an unequal distribution of forward momentum in America. Glenn Ligon
Distribution Like Eric Ferguson Unequal America Us Show Forward Momentum Garner Things
So much of my work has been about disappearing. Glenn Ligon
Work Has-Been About Disappearing Been Much
One of the interesting things about quoting in an artwork is that there is a repeated confusion about who is speaking - one essentially becomes the author of a quote one uses. Glenn Ligon
Confusion About Becomes Repeated Author Essentially Artwork Quote Quoting Interesting Interesting Things Speaking Who Uses Things
Throughout African-American literature, the writer has, in a sense, been burdened by the necessity of pleading the case for the whole race. For example, writers of slave narratives tend to lose their individual voices, as they were expected to stand in for all other voices, which were absent. Glenn Ligon
Example Lose Sense Other Pleading Case Absent Tend Voices Individual Throughout Writer Writers For Example Narratives Were Been Expected Burdened African-American Literature Which Race Stand Whole Necessity Slave
Race is not something inherent to one's being: One does feel more or less colored, depending on the situation. Glenn Ligon
Situation Something More More Or Less Colored Feel Does Depending Being Race Inherent Less
The public schools in our neighborhood were so bad that the teachers in the school said you shouldn't send your kids here. My mother called around and found a school that was willing to give both me and my brother scholarship money. It's a classic story about black parents wanting more for their kids than they had for themselves. Glenn Ligon
Me You Money School Mother Black Parents Public Schools Our Neighborhood Kids Willing Bad Brother Classic About Give More Both Had Scholarship Schools Around Said Were Than Send Wanting Story Public Themselves Your Teachers Found Here
Language controls how you are perceived by others, and in that sense, it is a prison. Glenn Ligon
You Language Prison Sense Others Perceived How Controls

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