Like any artwork, things become richer if you know more about them; but I don't think that's crucial. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Paint is a very sensual material. It's lovely to work with and lovely to look at. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I said to myself, "If the government thinks I'm an artist, I must be one." — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Art points to things. It's a way of giving people not the standard way of looking at the world. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I make art to figure out what I'm thinking, not to tell people what I think. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I'm not an Abstraction Expressionist, but I think dedication to paintings comes from an early interest in that work. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Willem de Kooning paintings are a language to be learned. When they were first shown, they were ridiculed as being just drips… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In government they learned their lesson. They don't trust artists anymore. Now the money has to go through arts organizations. But, yeah,… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
At some point I realized that the text was the painting and that everything else was extraneous. The painting became the act… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Sol LeWitt had a huge influence on my work because of his use of repetition and his clarity, setting up a system… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
An artwork is an arrangement of things. The ideal show for me would be if everything touched, literally touched, so that everything… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In '89, I got a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. That's when I started to get into group shows.… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I was in the 1993 Whitney Biennial and the 1994 'Black Male' show at the Whitney, and I've never seen such vicious… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother used to say that when I told her that I wanted to be an artist, her famous line was, 'The… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother really didn't come from artists. Her famous quote to me was, "The only artists I've ever heard of are dead."… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I switched up so that I could work 12-hour shifts at the firm on the weekends so I could have days free… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
At a lecture, a guy said to me, "You know, when I look at your work, I don't know what I'm looking… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I think there's an interest right now in the performance aspect of artworks, instead of just hanging things on walls. We're in… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Rather than say art is art and life is life, I like to say that they're joined and inextricable. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Throughout African-American literature, the writer has, in a sense, been burdened by the necessity of pleading the case for the whole race. For example,… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Race is not something inherent to one's being: One does feel more or less colored, depending on the situation. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I think there's an interest right now in the performance aspect of artworks, instead of just hanging things on walls. We're in a moment… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
A key text for me is James Baldwin's essays. And, in particular, his essay Stranger in the Village. It's a text that I've used… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
It's a great idea: to feel the rhythm of something by seeing how it flows on a page. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In writing, something is always left out: it can't be articulated in the space of an essay. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Willem de Kooning paintings are a language to be learned. When they were first shown, they were ridiculed as being just drips and splatters… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother really didn't come from artists. Her famous quote to me was, "The only artists I've ever heard of are dead." The pottery… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
