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
Painting does more than just point to things. The very act of pointing is a value statement.
Interpretation
The act of painting conveys deeper meanings beyond mere representation.
Kehinde Wiley's quote emphasizes that painting is not just about depicting objects or scenes; it is an act of expression that carries significant meaning and intention. The act of pointing, or focusing on particular subjects in art, conveys a statement about value, perspective, and the artist's engagement with the world, inviting viewers to consider what is highlighted and why.
In practice
In a conversation about the significance of art, one might say, 'As Kehinde Wiley puts it, painting does more than just point to things, highlighting the deeper meanings behind artistic expression.'
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.
I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films. They became very conservative in the way they created them. It's too bad. I thought 2-D and 3-D could coexist happily.
I talk about life, and I make universal music with an American style - and that's what I do.
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
I look at a nude. There are myriads of tiny tints. I must find the ones that will make the flesh on my canvas live and quiver.
Music helps you find the truths you must bring into the rest of your life.
The only merit I have is to have painted directly from nature with the aim of conveying my impressions in front of the most fugitive effects.
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