Art Quotes by Kehinde Wiley
All Art quotes Kehinde Wiley’s page
A magical artistic garden appears in the speaker’s memory, showing how art can feel wondrous. The quotes stress breaking art into bite‑sized lessons, and they argue that art should reflect human values like Black Lives Matter. They also mention the rare mix of erotic imagination and art history in creative work.
![“In our conversations, he [Michael Jackson] revealed a surprising understanding of art history. We were going through the finer points of the difference between one Italian sculptor to the next. You know, this - these are things that we don't necessarily assume of people in sanctified light.” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/856/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_in-our-conversations-he-michael-jackson_3203876.jpg)
![“I began working within the streets of Harlem, where, after graduating from Yale [University, New Haven, CT], I became the artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem [New York, NY]. I wanted to know what that was about. I would actually pull people from off of the streets and ask them to…” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/dd2/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_i-began-working-within-the-streets-of-ha_2894302.jpg)
![“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.” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/9b9/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_my-studio-practice-is-a-i-suppose-a-bit_2097387.jpg)
![“I think, at the L.A. County Museum of Art, I saw my first example of Kerry James Marshall, who had a very sort of heroic, oversized painting of black men in a barbershop. But it was painted on the same level and with the same urgency that you would see in a grand-scale [Anthony] van Dyck or…” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/a08/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_i-think-at-the-l-a-county-museum-of-art_1563358.jpg)
![“Mel [Bochner] sets a very high standard. He expects only the best and most thoughtful and rigorous examinations, not only of the history of art but your own practice.” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/06b/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_mel-bochner-sets-a-very-high-standard-he_1509862.jpg)
![“Just so [becoming a chef ] that I could support my art habit. You know? I mean, this is - this is something where you've been literally given an opportunity to put the world on pause for a second.” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/ef0/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_just-so-becoming-a-chef-that-i-could-sup_2148704.jpg)
