Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Glenn Ligon

Quote by Glenn Ligon

“I graduated from Wesleyan University with a b.a. in art. I was really headed toward an architecture degree, but when I did the requirements for the major, I realized I was more interested in how people live in buildings than in making buildings. I was more interested in the interactions that happened inside the structures. So I got an art degree as a default position.”

Quote by Glenn Ligon

Create image

Author

Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon

Glenn Ligon, born in 1960, is a renowned visual artist from the United States. His works focus on themes of race, gender, and identity, using painting, sculpture, and installation art to deeply reveal the historical and cultural conflicts in American society. more

You May Also Like

“At a lecture, a guy said to me, "You know, when I look at your work, I don't know what I'm looking at, but when I look at a Willem de Kooning painting, I know what that is." I said, "Well, the paintings I'm doing have a very legible sentence at the top of the canvas." At a lecture, a guy said to me, "You know, when I look at your work, I don't know what I'm looking at, but when I look at a de Kooning painting, I know what that is." I said, "Well, the paintings I'm doing have a very legible sentence at the top of the canvas."”

GuyPaintingCanvas
Author:Glenn Ligon
Create image

“Jazz musicians like John Coltrane needed these very clear titles for their abstract music, and your decision to bring voices into your music as a way to tap into content. It's related to the way my text-based work still functions as abstraction for me. If I repeat a sentence down a canvas, the text starts to smudge and disappear. It essentially becomes an abstract piece. The meaning of the text is still there.”

DecisionMusicianJazzDisappearAbstractCanvasJazz MusicJazz MusicianColtrane
Author:Glenn Ligon
Create image