Glenn Ligon Quotes

At 18 I began painting steadily fulltime and at age 20 had my first New York show at the Macbeth Gallery.

When I started painting 17 years ago, I never imagined that anyone would look at my work or buy my pieces. But now I do about 14 exhibitions each year.

The big pay-off was to work as an artist and gain some shred of respect from your friends, who were also artists. But there was never any notion that you could make a living out of art. On the rare occasions you had a gallery show, and sold a little work, well, that was just gravy.

Most painters want recognition, especially by their peers.

For the first time in my career, I'm working in a fine-arts arena, so I'm finally getting some intelligent reviews.

I decided to become a painter when my first four paintings where all published and attracted a great deal of interest. I exhibited one of them and it was sold.

I finished my studies in England, I opened my studio in London, and the first one-man exhibit I had on Bond Street, which was opened by the Austrian ambassador.

As writers, you spend so long trying to build your cred as a writer, and then everything comes together at the same time: your artist career happens when your songwriter career is, too.

The art industry is a totally different world, and to be appreciated in that different world is what matters to me.

My mother was willing to support art as a summer program for me. She never supported it as a career decision until I won the National Gallery Portrait Competition.

I'm fully aware had I stayed with my art, I would be well known, respected and most likely rich.

No one was more surprised than me when my paintings started selling, except maybe my dealer.

When I had my first show at Artists Space in 1979, I imagined my life like game show. There were two doors: one door had a big dollar sign on it, and the other just had sort of a blurry picture of a newspaper - the money door or the critical response and acclaim door.

Even though I've been putting out bodies of work for years, 'Beauty Behind the Madness' felt like the beginning.

I feel like fifteen years with Fleetwood Mac was like working on my thesis, doing research for some kind of paper.

With 'Poison,' I'm sure some people just hated the movie, but it also got caught up into a debate about arts funding because it was a film that received a National Endowment for the Arts Public Grant, and it won the prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

I feel the first award any artist can have is his audience.

I feel like Canada is really good at nurturing their artists, and America's not so good at that. The artistic community is so important to a country.

Unfortunately - as I have experienced first-hand, as many artists have - there's a gaping hole between platinum and non-existent. There's no in-between.

I think the Oscar is the big money award; that means you've made it in a money sense. The Tony has always represented - to me, and most actors that I've talked to - an artistic award. It means you're an artist and not just a popular performer.

'Certifiably Jonathan' contrives crises for its subject - a bid to get his paintings into MOMA, among others.

All my success belongs to those who have contributed in my pursuit of art, ranging from writers and directors to makeup artists, lighting crew, etc.

To have a simultaneous global audience as an artist is more than you could ever hope for.

I think 'Sound of My Voice' was the first film where suddenly I could point to something I had done that I was proud of and say, 'Look at this piece of work.' And that's probably what led to 'Fruitvale Station,' which was the real break.

I feel like my breakout moment had to have been when I dropped 'Drip Season 3.' I feel like it was just a real good body of music.