This idea that my work is about hip-hop is a little reductive. What I'm interested in is the performance of masculinity, the performance of ethnicity, and how they intermingle across cultures.
Kehinde WileyRead
There's something really cool about taking oily coloured paste and pushing it around with these hairy sticks and making something that looks like you. That's the magic of painting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Painting is a transformative process that creates a reflection of oneself through the medium of color and texture.
In this quote, Kehinde Wiley expresses the enchanting and transformative nature of painting. He emphasizes the unique and personal experience of manipulating colored paste with brushes, highlighting how this creative act allows an artist to create a representation of themselves. The magic lies not only in the art itself but also in the process of self-expression and personal connection that comes from it.
Themes
PaintingArtSelf-ExpressionCreativityTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the subjective nature of art during a gallery exhibition.
More from Kehinde Wiley
All quotes βWhat is portraiture? It's choice. It's the ability to position your body in the world for the world to celebrate you on your own terms.
Kehinde WileyRead
The ability to be the first African-American painter to paint the first African-American president of the United States is absolutely overwhelming. It doesn't get any better than that.
Kehinde WileyRead
Painting is about the world that we live in. Black men live in the world. My choice is to include them.
Kehinde WileyRead
What I try to do is defy expectations in terms of boundaries, whether it is high or low art, pop culture, or fine-art culture. My work is about reconciling myriad cultural influences and bringing them into one picture.
Kehinde WileyRead
There is something that always will be true about painting and sculpture - that in order to really get it, you have to show up. That is something that is both sad and kind of beautiful about it. It remains analog. It remains special and irreducible.
Kehinde WileyRead
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