How does the artist function as poet-slash-witness-slash-trickster? Kehinde Wiley More Quotes by Kehinde Wiley More Quotes From Kehinde Wiley If I were making paintings of a bowl of fruit it would still be viewed through some sort of political lens, because the viewer wants to create a type of narrative around the political theme when they look at work depicting black and brown models. Kehinde Wiley blackpoliticalwant Like, the smells and the sights and the sounds. As an artist, you want to sort of be able to engage that and get that down in some way. This is - this is a type of familiarity but a type of radical difference at the same time. Kehinde Wiley smellartistsight I think, something that you might be able to locate in the work that I'm creating today: the ability to look at a black America as something that not only can be mined in a very sort of cynical, cold way, but also embraced in a very personal, love-driven way; but also sort of critiqued. Kehinde Wiley creatingamericathinking My mother's from Texas. Small town outside of Waco called Downsville. And my father's from Nigeria. And so I guess I'm properly African-American. Kehinde Wiley texasmotherfather There is no pedestrian culture [in South Central Los Angeles]. Kehinde Wiley pedestrianslos-angelesculture I was surrounded by art by virtue of not only the educational opportunities that my mother's foresight availed me to. Kehinde Wiley educationalmotherart There was no image of the other biological half of myself. And as an artists, as a - as an - as a portraitist, the look of who you are was radically important to me. Kehinde Wiley importantartistlooks I think that once you're able to sort of get in line with who and how you relate to the world, you'll become closer to this index that I'm referring to. Because what you want is this card that relates to that book. What you want is this human that relates to this world, rather than having this art school society scattering that point of view somewhere in between. It becomes diffused. And that level of clarity, I think, was gained at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Kehinde Wiley bookartschool At age 20 I went to go find my father in Nigeria. And after much toil, I finally figured out exactly where he was. And there's something about seeing your father for the first time - my mother destroyed all pictures of him. Kehinde Wiley agemotherfather It was something that came sort of matter-of-factually. Because there - it's like really - real honest engagement with the people around me and just like really honestly being a little bit confused, quite frankly, about Harlem. Kehinde Wiley confusedrealpeople I went back to my mother's house recently and I saw some of my earlier works as a 15-year-old art student. And a lot of them were reiterations of classic works. Kehinde Wiley motheryearsart There's always a joy in newness as a painter, and in sub-Saharan Africa, I encountered different realities with regard to light and how it bounces across the skin. The way that blues and purples come into play. In India and Sri Lanka, it was no different. It became a moment in which I had an opportunity to learn as a painter how to create the body in full form, and that's a very material and aesthetic thing. This is not conceptual. It's all an abstraction. Kehinde Wiley lightopportunityreality My paintings at their best take that vocabulary and attempt to transpose that into a form that gives respect not only to the history of painting but also to those people who look and sound like me. Kehinde Wiley vocabularygivingpeople I think it's possible to allow an artist to go beyond his borders and play. Kehinde Wiley artistplaythinking I like to play with the conventions around what we expect of paintings historically. But I also like to play with the conventions that you expect from a Kehinde Wiley painting, too. Kehinde Wiley conventionspaintingplay While it may seem a little mundane, the material realities of realizing the painting actually have a lot to do with how you should read the painting. For example, we assume that what the model is wearing is what we found him in in the streets. No; in fact, a lot of what happens is that in Photoshop certain aspects are being heightened or diminished. There is no actual material truth in these paintings. Kehinde Wiley examplemayreality One of the weirdest things that happened to artists and art criticism was this moment when everyone got cynical and stopped believing in the ability to engage the world in all of its myriad purposes, transformations, and incarnations. Kehinde Wiley cynicalbelieveart People who - and I think that's been a huge education for me. I think it's a - it's a privilege to be able to meet such a broad cross-section of New York and increasingly the world, and to get a feel of how people respond to visual culture. Kehinde Wiley new-yorkpeoplethinking My studio practice is a - I suppose a bit more like [Thomas] Gainsborough or [Peter Paul] Rubens in the sense that any artist who wants to create a grand narrative on a grand scale has to sort of parse out some of the smaller aspects of painting or the more mundane aspects of painting to others. Kehinde Wiley artistpracticewant While I can hire out the portrait, I don't, because it's just - that's where I shine. You know, that's my blood sport. Kehinde Wiley shiningsportsblood
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