Skip to content

Artist Quotes by Hilton Als

9 Artist quotes by Hilton Als

All Artist quotes Hilton Als’s page

Hilton Als’s reflections on the artist’s role appear in nine sharp statements that read like a critic’s notebook, each one cutting to the core of cultural observation.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

It's very hard to find artists in the history of western art who don't make portraiture ideological in some way.

Image

My love of performers is not really different than my love for painters. Everyone's really high-strung and trying to do the best…

Image

In the contemporary world, artists are almost entirely self-referential.

Image

Our wishes are our most reliable mirror, and the black-and-white movies I'm most drawn to are about artists who suffer because art…

Image

I think I'm just generally more interested in figuration than abstraction. I think that painting abstraction often feels like painting colors to…

Image

Every time I put a collection together I'd scrap it because there was no "meaning," until I wrote about the two black…

Image

People approach people of color with preconceived ideas. I don't think this is just restricted to white people, but I think that…

Image

The artist’s memory is a dangerous, necessary thing. Never disavow what you see and remember-it’s your brilliant stock-in-trade: remembering, and making something…

Image

I think what we're attracted to on the page is something that is very difficult to do in life, which is to…

Image

Other authors on Artist

More by Hilton Als

Challenging is good, like good conversation, yes? Who wants to have dinner with the same old easy listening music sounding friends all the time?

Image

I think someone like Khandi Alexander, who's now on 'Treme,' is one of the most extraordinary actresses I've seen in years. But she's dependent…

Image

I have not seen 'The Lion King.' I don't do black folklore. And I'm black.

Image

I think you're not really teaching anyone unless you're learning yourself.

Image

I used to always love taking photos, but I would always give a camera away to someone else. Now I don't give the camera…

Image

If I feel like I haven't really tapped into the essence of the story when I do an assignment, I may revisit it on…

Image

Inspiration takes many forms, but it's rarely pure.

Image

Great sadness can be off putting, hard to comprehend, especially if it hasn't been your experience. It's amazing for me to know now that…

Image

I think that Tyler Perry's genius really has been to tap into the domestic market. He knows what his audience is based on, having…

Image

I love Andre Leon Talley as a person.

Image

I thought of the structure as musical. The first piece, for instance, contains the names/subject matter of every person to come in the book.…

Image

People have a copyright on their own life.

Image

People are quick to make monuments of anything they live long enough to control.

Image

Racism seduces us with its desire to categorize, shutting out the living and breathing and 'different' world all around us.

Image

I was so well loved by my mother that if people have any expectations of me I really don't notice because I'm hardest on…

Image