5009 quotes by artists for you to enjoy

The way we think about a presidential portrait is one that is imbued with dignity from the outset. Kehinde Wiley

Dignity Think Presidential Way About Outset Portrait

You don't hire Kehinde Wiley to have a tame painting. Kehinde Wiley

You Painting Tame Hire

When I was growing up and going to art school and learning about African-American art, much of it was a type of political art that was very didactic and based on the '60s, and a social collective. Kehinde Wiley

Art Learning School Political Collective Type About Up Art School Very Didactic Going African-American Social Much Growing Growing Up Based

I grew up in this weird, educationally elite but economically impoverished environment. Total 'Oprah' story. Kehinde Wiley

Total Environment Weird Economically Impoverished Oprah Up Grew Story Elite

The games I'm playing have much more to do with using the language of power and the vocabulary of power to construct new sentences. It's about pointing to empire and control and domination and misogyny and all those social ills in the work, but it's not necessarily taking a position. Oftentimes, it's actually embodying it. Kehinde Wiley

Work Language Power Control Those About Vocabulary More Construct Pointing Taking Empire New Domination Oftentimes Social Sentences Much Games Using Ills Actually Necessarily Playing Position

The language of the heroic is something that has evolved over time. Kehinde Wiley

Time Language Heroic Evolved Something Over

When you go back to the days when I was studying how to paint, some of the things that excited me most was to go into the Huntington Library and Gardens and to see the amazing pictures of the landed gentry. Kehinde Wiley

Me You Library Amazing Back See Some Excited Studying Days Pictures Most How Go Landed Paint Gardens Things

My father is Nigerian; my mother is from Texas and African-American. My father was the first in his family to go to university. He flew from Nigeria to Los Angeles in the '70s to go to UCLA, where he met my mother. They broke up before I was born, and he returned to Nigeria. Kehinde Wiley

Family Mother Father First Met Before Broke Born Angeles He Returned Los Los Angeles Go His Texas Up Where African-American Flew Nigeria Nigerian University

Once I get a project in my head, I start getting really obsessive about it. Kehinde Wiley

Project Once About Head Obsessive Get Getting Really Start

In a sense, we are all victims of the misogyny and racism that exist in the world, no matter what our gender or race happens to be. Kehinde Wiley

Racism World Matter Gender Sense Our Exist Happens Victims Race

If art can be at the service of anything, it's about letting us see a state of grace for those people who rarely get to be able to be seen that way. Kehinde Wiley

Service Art People Grace Seen State Way Those See Able Rarely About Get Anything Us Who Letting

Fashion is fragile and fleeting. But it is also an indicator for the cultural and social appetites for a nation. Kehinde Wiley

Fashion Nation Indicator Also Cultural Social Fleeting Appetites Fragile

As a working artist, I became increasingly aware of the patterns we see in the street and in America, becoming globalized in terms of pop culture and global and social outlook. Kehinde Wiley

Culture Increasingly See Outlook Global Terms Became Becoming America Artist Patterns Social Pop Working Pop Culture Aware Street

In the end, what I'm trying to say as a person who does all this travel and fashions these images is that you arrive at an approximate location but never one destination. Kehinde Wiley

You Travel Destination Say Approximate Location Never Does Arrive End Person Trying In The End Who Fashions Images

So much of the history of painting is the propaganda of self-aggrandizement. Kehinde Wiley

History Painting Propaganda The History Of Much

Art is nothing if you don't reach every segment of the people. Keith Haring

Art You People Nothing Every Segment Reach

I think you have to control the materials to an extent, but it's important to let the materials have a kind of power for themselves; like the natural power of gravity, if you are painting on a wall, it makes the paint trickle and it drips; there is no reason to fight that. Keith Haring

My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can. Keith Haring

People World Will Long Draw Ability Contribution Much Many

Art is for everybody. Keith Haring

Art Everybody

I am intrigued with the shapes people choose as their symbols to create a language. There is within all forms a basic structure, an indication of the entire object with a minimum of lines that becomes a symbol. This is common to all languages, all people, all times. Keith Haring

People Language Intrigued Minimum All People Indication Object Entire Structure Shapes Within Becomes Am Lines Times Common Forms Create Languages Choose Basic Symbol Symbols

Everybody draws when they are little. Keith Haring

Everybody Draws Little

See, when I paint, it is an experience that, at its best, is transcending reality. Keith Haring

Best Experience Reality See Transcending Paint

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