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.
Kehinde WileyRead
I remember the first time I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and saw a Kerry James Marshall painting with black bodies in it on a museum wall... It strengthened me on a cellular level.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the profound impact of visual representation in art, particularly for marginalized communities.
Kehinde Wiley's quote reflects the deep emotional and spiritual connection that individuals can feel when they see their own identities and experiences represented in art. The mention of being 'strengthened on a cellular level' suggests that such representations have the power to affirm one’s existence and heritage, promoting a sense of belonging and empowerment through cultural visibility.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at an art exhibit showcasing works by artists of color.
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.
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.
What 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.
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.
Painting is about the world that we live in. Black men live in the world. My choice is to include them.
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.
Music sets up certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized.
I paint not the things I see but the feelings they arouse in me.
I think that the job of poetry, its political job, is to refresh the idea of justice, which is going dead in us all the time.
Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.
Everything on this record is what I really wanted to say, and I'm back to being the poet I always thought I was.
Some may find them merely diverting melodies. Others may find them incitements to Red revolution. And who will say if either or both is wrong? Not I.
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