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'm about looking at each of those perceived menacing black men that you see in the streets all over the place, people that you oftentimes will walk past without assuming that they have the same humanity, fears that we all do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the shared humanity and fears between individuals, regardless of their appearance or background.
Kehinde Wiley's quote challenges the societal perceptions that often dehumanize individuals, particularly black men, who are frequently viewed as threatening or dangerous. By urging people to recognize the shared humanity and fears that we all experience, Wiley advocates for empathy and understanding in a world where assumptions based on appearance can lead to division and misunderstanding.
Themes
HumanityEmpathyFearPerceptionUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This could be used in a speech about social justice to highlight the importance of seeing beyond stereotypes.
More from Kehinde Wiley
All quotes →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
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.
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
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