From our upcoming Winter 2021 Issue: Two of America’s most influential artists, LornaSimpson and GlennLigon talk about losing their rhythm and finding their voice.
Lorna Simpson and Glenn Ligon were both born in New York City in 1960. If generational synchronicity means anything, it’s telling that both rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early ’90s, venturing from painting to socio-conceptual pursuits in photography, found imagery, sculpture, and text. They each managed, in their own style, to create provocative work that challenged the reigning notions of beauty and the Black body, and expand the conversation on what art can and must represent.
LIGON: Yes, it is a history painting. That’s exactly right. We know that Okwui, as a curator, was quite panoramic. He wanted to come big and come inclusive and come with the history. Certainly, Okwui was in the back of my mind when I was making the first of these paintings. He always pushed us as artists to be all we could be. For this upcoming show I’m using the entire gallery. There’s also going to be a big new neon.
LIGON: Europeans often imagine that racism in the United States is a category by itself. That they don’t have these problems in Europe. Recent history has shown that to be a lie, but the fiction of a color-blind society is still there. And yes, it’s also an opportunity to show these paintings in the space where Baldwin generated the essay. What has working been like for you during the pandemic and the aftermath of the election?SIMPSON: There have been hard moments.
LIGON: But don’t you also find it can be productive for things to remain a bit opaque and unconscious while you’re working on a piece? LIGON: That’s what artists do: put together all these bits and pieces in the studio and react to what’s going on around them, in their private environment or in the world, and synthesize all of that consciously or unconsciously into the work. The work is being made in the world. It’s not like we’re up in towers making stuff. And you’re right about learning from other artists. I had a funny experience going to Julie Mehretu’s show at the Whitney.
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