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Thinking Quotes by Kehinde Wiley

48 Thinking quotes by Kehinde Wiley

All Thinking quotes Kehinde Wiley’s page

A magical artistic garden is how Kehinde Wiley describes the world that shaped his paintings. He talks about empathy and curiosity being built into our DNA, and how his work shows black America as a powerful, complex scene rather than just pretty pictures. He also believes artists should be part of culture and that creating art can boost self‑confidence.

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I think that the Kehinde Wiley brand is something that I'm working towards expanding and to inclusion.

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I believe that artists should be part of the culture. I think that my work clearly bears that out.

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I think that an obsession with art history gave rise to the work.

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I am interested in evolution within my thinking. I am not interested in the evolution of my paint.

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One of my most strong memories was studying with Mel Bochner, one of the, I think, high water marks of American conceptual…

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I think that one of the questions that I asked of myself in later years was to this point of the political…

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What it is is a type of editorialization, you know? This is self-portraiture. This is what you think about the world we…

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I think it's possible to allow an artist to go beyond his borders and play.

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The art world has become so insular. The rules have become so autodidactic that, in a sense, they lose track of what…

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I think that just the nature of art education in schools, it's about packs, you know? Like, we're young wolves running together,…

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That's the trouble with, I think, my - the contemporary read of my work. So many people just simply say, "These are…

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When I went to the Studio Museum in Harlem, there was a type of freedom that existed where I didn't have to…

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So sometimes you have to play your hand and sort of push in a direction. And I think that masculinity is the…

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Portraiture is something that we're all drawn to. I think primarily other forms - we prefer, by and large, to look at…

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I think that I'm increasingly aware of the fact that in order to work towards any statement that's radically global or universal,…

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I think what we should concentrate on is what it feels like to be a working artist in the day to day.…

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I think didactic art is boring. I mean, I love it in terms of, like, some of the historical precedents that I've…

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I think that once you're able to sort of get in line with who and how you relate to the world, you'll…

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I had no idea about where I was going. I had no sense of art as anything other than a problem to…

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I think, something that you might be able to locate in the work that I'm creating today: the ability to look at…

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And as a young black man, a lot of my professors would really think that it was useful to see the work…

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It never really understood its own situational luxury. And I think that by and large the privilege of being Kehinde Wiley in…

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I think it's really useful to create parameters. The term you use can be forwarded into something more like a grid, a…

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Going to the Huntington gardens and libraries was radically important for me. They have one of the best collections of 18th- and…

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I think, at the L.A. County Museum of Art, I saw my first example of Kerry James Marshall, who had a very…

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I think the world that I grew up in was like being in this sort of magical artistic garden.

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I actually studied cooking and, like, was thinking about becoming a chef.

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I think that artists provide questions, not answers. We provide provocations rather than fully formed objects.

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I think that at its best you just have to respect each arena for what they can do well.

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We're wired to be empathetic and to care about the needs of others, but also to be curious about others. And I…

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You know, the process, I think, is the story. And it goes back, again, to what I said about chance and about…

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People who - and I think that's been a huge education for me. I think it's a - it's a privilege to…

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Can I - do I have to be obsessed with it and proceed from that? Not always. But when I'm on top…

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I think that's kind of indicative of a type of self-confidence that people develop when they recognize their own ability to create.

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In some way they are all self-portraits, but I think I know what you mean by asking this - I would say,…

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I think it was a matter of, like, I'm not going to have my kids in these wild streets. Both my twin…

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You know, one of my - one of my best and, I think, most enlightening moments was when I was contacted by…

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I think there's something important in going against the grain and perhaps finding value in things that aren't necessarily institutionally recognized.

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I think that gave rise to the type of practice that I - that I do now. I think it was informed…

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I think one of the things that I took from Mel [Bochner] specifically was his ability to look at oneself and one's…

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More by Kehinde Wiley

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,…

The erotic and the art historical imagination is something that gets very little play when people talk about my work, and when they rarely…

One of the weirdest things that happened to artists and art criticism was this moment when everyone got cynical and stopped believing in the…

At its best, what art does is, it points to who we as human beings and what we as human beings value. And if…

My style is in the 21st century. If you look at the process, it goes from photography through Photoshop, where certain features are heightened,…

I think the world that I grew up in was like being in this sort of magical artistic garden.

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…

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…

Painting is situational. And my particular situation exists within gender, race, class, sexuality, nation.

There were certain expectations that were assumed of me as a young black American 20th-century - then 20th-century artist.

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…

I remember the first time I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and saw a Kerry James Marshall painting with black…

I believe that artists should be part of the culture. I think that my work clearly bears that out.

I guess art is in the eye of the beholder.

Just physically, if you looked at the house that I grew up in, my mother created this greenhouse. And surrounded the entire property. And…