Most people say, "Hell, no. I don't know who you are. This scares me. Like, I'm not interested in this."Another way of… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
My peers at the time: you know, young black kids from off the streets of Harlem, having these conversations with me in… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
While I can hire out the portrait, I don't, because it's just - that's where I shine. You know, that's my blood… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
Just so [becoming a chef ] that I could support my art habit. You know? I mean, this is - this is… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I think that just the nature of art education in schools, it's about packs, you know? Like, we're young wolves running together,… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I've met others [people] who simply responded to me, "You're Kehinde Wiley. I know your work. I saw it at the Brooklyn… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
What it is is a type of editorialization, you know? This is self-portraiture. This is what you think about the world we… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
When the fat lady comes out to sing, we don't know how she feels that day. We don't know if she's suffering… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I think didactic art is boring. I mean, I love it in terms of, like, some of the historical precedents that I've… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I enjoy Chicago as one of the great American cities. When I come here and take a taxi from the airport, I… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I had no idea about where I was going. I had no sense of art as anything other than a problem to… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
In our conversations, he [Michael Jackson] revealed a surprising understanding of art history. We were going through the finer points of the… — 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
Much like teaching art to young art students age 10 to 15 or so on, you have to break it down into… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
It was probably one of the things that gave me a sense of possibility and allowed for me to see beyond the… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
You know, the process, I think, is the story. And it goes back, again, to what I said about chance and about… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
I think, at the L.A. County Museum of Art, I saw my first example of Kerry James Marshall, who had a very… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
In some way they are all self-portraits, but I think I know what you mean by asking this - I would say,… — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share Image
You know, one of my - one of my best and, I think, most enlightening moments was when I was contacted by… — 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
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
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
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
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
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
I think the world that I grew up in was like being in this sort of magical artistic garden. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share
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
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
Painting is situational. And my particular situation exists within gender, race, class, sexuality, nation. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share
There were certain expectations that were assumed of me as a young black American 20th-century - then 20th-century artist. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share
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
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
I believe that artists should be part of the culture. I think that my work clearly bears that out. — Kehinde Wiley Copy Share
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
![“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/quotes/i/ef0/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_just-so-becoming-a-chef-that-i-could-sup_2148704.jpg)
![“I've met others [people] who simply responded to me, "You're Kehinde Wiley. I know your work. I saw it at the Brooklyn Museum [Brooklyn, NY] And I'd be honored to be in your work."” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/700/kehinde-wiley-1194_brooklyn_i-ve-met-others-people-who-simply-respon_313513.jpg)
![“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/quotes/i/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/quotes/i/dd2/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_i-began-working-within-the-streets-of-ha_2894302.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/quotes/i/a08/kehinde-wiley-1194_art_i-think-at-the-l-a-county-museum-of-art_1563358.jpg)
