At some point I realized that the text was the painting and that everything else was extraneous. The painting became the act of writing a text on a canvas, but in all my work, text turns into abstraction. Glenn Ligon More Quotes by Glenn Ligon More Quotes From Glenn Ligon Rather than say art is art and life is life, I like to say that they're joined and inextricable. Glenn Ligon say like life art I don't know if I would describe myself as a political artist. Glenn Ligon myself know political artist Art points to things. It's a way of giving people not the standard way of looking at the world. Glenn Ligon looking people world art I'm interested in when language fails, when it is opaque. Glenn Ligon fails interested opaque language I really don't have a clear trajectory at all. Glenn Ligon really trajectory clear If something sticks with me for a long time, it goes into a painting. Glenn Ligon me painting time long I make art to figure out what I'm thinking, not to tell people what I think. Glenn Ligon think people art thinking What I realized is that my interest in literature has more deeply structured my practice than I thought. Glenn Ligon more thought literature practice I don't cook, and I don't care to, but Gabrielle Hamilton made me realize that food is about love and connection. And she has had a hell of an interesting life. Glenn Ligon me food love life It's an artist's job to always have their antennas up. Glenn Ligon job up always 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 everything me blur together A lot of my work is about text taken to the point of abstraction. Glenn Ligon text point about work I'm a formalist. I'm interested in the history of painting. Glenn Ligon interested painting history Obama is the first African-American president, and for some people, that means a great deal, and for some people, it means very little. Glenn Ligon some-people some great people Literature has been a treacherous site for black Americans because literary production has been so tied with the project of proving our humanity through the act of writing. Glenn Ligon black literature humanity writing I'm not an Abstraction Expressionist, but I think dedication to paintings comes from an early interest in that work. Glenn Ligon i-think think dedication work 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 experience black culture I love Monk's song, 'Just a Gigolo.' It's probably a minor song for him, but whenever I hear a recording of him playing it, I'm mesmerized because Monk clearly loved pop music. He took it very seriously and made an amazing thing out of it. Glenn Ligon loved music song love Sol LeWitt had a huge influence on my work because of his use of repetition and his clarity, setting up a system and letting that system go. That's kind of where the text paintings came from. Glenn Ligon go repetition influence work 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 career know age work
