When you go back to the days when I was studying how to paint, some of the things that excited me most… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
When I'm at my best, I'm trying to destabilize myself and figure out new ways of approaching art as a provocation. I… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
The expectations of the viewer are what you're asking about. And the expectations of the viewer are manifold. However, they are very… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I began working within the streets of Harlem, where, after graduating from Yale [University, New Haven, CT], I became the artist in… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
My paintings at their best take that vocabulary and attempt to transpose that into a form that gives respect not only to… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I like to play with the conventions around what we expect of paintings historically. But I also like to play with the… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Women are expected to identify gender as a starting point. Ethnicities are expected to identify that as a location. Is it ever… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I think that gave rise to the type of practice that I - that I do now. I think it was informed… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Stained glass is unique from the outside, but as a painting insider, I know that oil painting's all about light. And it's… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
There's something really cool about taking oily coloured paste and pushing it around with these hairy sticks and making something that looks… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
There's quite obviously the desire to open the rule sets that allow for inclusion or disclusion. I think that my hope would… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
As a working artist, I became increasingly aware of the patterns we see in the street and in America, becoming globalized in… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
After high school I went to the San Francisco Art Institute, and I began a formalized art education where we went through… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I love the flexibility of saying, "Today we're making 50-foot paintings, and we're going to have to join hands and figure out… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I have a fondness for making paintings that go beyond just having a conversation about art for art's sake or having a… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
What's great about it is that painting doesn't move. And so in the 21st century, when we're used to clicking and browsing… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
So much of the hubris that surrounded conceptual art in the 1950s through '70s was that it had this arrogant presupposition that… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
There is something that always will be true about painting and sculpture - that in order to really get it, you have… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
One of the weirdest things that happened to artists and art criticism was this moment when everyone got cynical and stopped believing… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Joseph Gotto, yeah. Just all-around one of the more inspiring artists - not because of any sort of specific content direction, but… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Unlike the background in many of the paintings that I was inspired by or paintings that I borrowed poses from - the… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Can I - do I have to be obsessed with it and proceed from that? Not always. But when I'm on top… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
What I love in art is that it takes known combinations and reorders them in a way that sheds light on something… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Like, the smells and the sights and the sounds. As an artist, you want to sort of be able to engage that… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
When I look back at my paintings, they don't give me a sense of where I was when I first met that… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
My mother sent me to art classes at the age of 11. I began to have kids around me say, 'Will you… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Artists are those people who sit at the intersection between the known and unknown, the rational and irrational, coming to terms with… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I use those expectations as a color on my palette, a certain temperature in the room. You can use those expectations for… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I'm like a gypsy. I've got a place in Beijing, a place in New York, a place in west Africa; I'm working… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
You know, I'm incredibly blessed to be able to have this level of choice as an artist today. In this economy, it's… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
When I was growing up and going to art school and learning about African-American art, much of it was a type of… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Much like teaching art to young art students age 10 to 15 or so on, you have to break it down into bite-sized pieces,… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
The erotic and the art historical imagination is something that gets very little play when people talk about my work, and when they rarely… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
One of the weirdest things that happened to artists and art criticism was this moment when everyone got cynical and stopped believing in the… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
At its best, what art does is, it points to who we as human beings and what we as human beings value. And if… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
My style is in the 21st century. If you look at the process, it goes from photography through Photoshop, where certain features are heightened,… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I think the world that I grew up in was like being in this sort of magical artistic garden. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
It was something that came sort of matter-of-factually. Because there - it's like really - real honest engagement with the people around me and… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
We're wired to be empathetic and to care about the needs of others, but also to be curious about others. And I think that's… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Painting is situational. And my particular situation exists within gender, race, class, sexuality, nation. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
There were certain expectations that were assumed of me as a young black American 20th-century - then 20th-century artist. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I think, something that you might be able to locate in the work that I'm creating today: the ability to look at a black… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I remember the first time I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and saw a Kerry James Marshall painting with black… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I believe that artists should be part of the culture. I think that my work clearly bears that out. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Just physically, if you looked at the house that I grew up in, my mother created this greenhouse. And surrounded the entire property. And… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
![“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/quotes/img-quotes/dd2/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_i-began-working-within-the-streets-of-ha_2894302.jpg)
