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Rashid Johnson Quotes

Powerful Rashid Johnson for Daily Growth

About Rashid Johnson

Rashid Johnson (b. 1977) is an American artist known for his multidisciplinary practice that explores personal and cultural identity through the lens of his upbringing as a third-generation African American. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he grew up surrounded by the city's rich cultural history, which significantly influenced his artistic development. Johnson earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2000 and his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002. His early work was a response to his time at these institutions, particularly his experiences as one of few African American students in predominantly white environments. This led him to incorporate elements of Black cultural iconography into his art, such as found objects, text, and imagery from popular culture. Johnson's major works often address themes of home, family, identity, and the complexities of blackness. His most renowned series include "Anxious Men" (2008), which features four wooden sculptures of faceless Black figures, and "Fly Away" (2014-2015), a site-specific installation that included over 300 black-and-white still lifes arranged on shelves. In 2019, Johnson was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create a site-specific installation for its American Wing galleries. Titled "The New Negro Escapist Social & Athletic League," the project drew inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance and served as a contemporary reinterpretation of that era's artistic and intellectual movement. Rashid Johnson's art has been exhibited internationally, with solo shows at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. His work resides in numerous public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"I've found that my work often serves as a reminder of where I come from and how I got here."

Rashid Johnson's quote highlights the personal and cultural significance of his artwork, suggesting that it serves as both a memento and a roadmap of his journey. This statement suggests that his work is deeply connected to his identity and upbringing, offering viewers an insight into his roots and life experiences. Essentially, Johnson's art acts as a tangible record of his past, reminding him of where he originated while also revealing the path that led him to where he stands today.

"Art is about communication and it's about community."

Rashid Johnson's quote suggests that art serves a dual purpose - communication and community building. Communication implies that art is a means to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas, both personal and universal. Community, on the other hand, signifies that art has the power to bring people together, fostering shared experiences, understanding, and connection. In essence, Johnson asserts that art is not just an individual act, but also a collective one that transcends boundaries and unites individuals.

"My work is a response to my lived experience as a black artist in America."

Rashid Johnson's statement signifies that his artistic creations are an expression of his personal journey and experiences as a Black artist living in America. This implies that his work reflects the social, cultural, and political realities he encounters daily, addressing issues related to race, identity, and the African American experience within the broader context of American society. His art serves as a powerful medium through which he shares his perspectives, challenges societal norms, and fosters dialogue about race and its impact on contemporary life in America.

"I think the most interesting work comes out of a place of curiosity and playfulness."

This quote suggests that the most captivating, engaging, or creative works are born from an intrinsically curious mind and a playful spirit. Curiosity fuels our desire to learn, explore, and question, while playfulness allows us to experiment, innovate, and think outside the box without fear of failure. When these two elements come together, they create a fertile ground for the development of original, thought-provoking, and impactful art or ideas. Essentially, Rashid Johnson encourages us to maintain an inquisitive mindset and enjoy the process of creation, as the resulting works will likely be both interesting and meaningful.

"I often look at art history as a kind of map or blueprint for what we, as artists today, can do."

This quote by Rashid Johnson suggests that art history serves as a guide or roadmap for contemporary artists, providing examples and ideas about what has been done in the past to inspire innovation and creation in the present. It implies that understanding the trajectory of art throughout history can inform current artistic practice and help shape the direction of future artistic expression. In essence, Johnson views art history as a resource to be mined for insight and inspiration, rather than an immutable set of rules or restrictions.

As an artist, I've always felt most comfortable outside of the art supply store. So domestic materials are the ones that most help inform what I'm trying to talk about and our familiarity as a whole - kind of the collective us, I guess.

- Rashid Johnson

Artist, Familiarity, Inform, Materials

For me, all the materials and objects I employ come from a specific space that's very personal.

- Rashid Johnson

Very, Objects, Employ, Materials

I wanted my art to deal with very formal concerns and to deal with very material concerns, and to deal with antecedents and art history, which for me go very far beyond just the influence of African-American artists.

- Rashid Johnson

Art, Very, Which, African-American

My mother introduced me to more academic-minded writers, Cornel West and Skip Gates. In her library, I came across, when I was very young, Harold Cruse's 'The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual,' which is like a bible of Negro intellectuals from Frederick Douglass to Amiri Baraka.

- Rashid Johnson

Young, Very, Skip, Harold

I don't have any other skills. Some artists say that to mean that their embodied passion for art gave them no choice. I say it, very specifically, to say that I really didn't have any other options.

- Rashid Johnson

Some, Other, Very, Specifically

My father ran a CB radio business. I grew up in a cluttered space that was filled with radios and antennas. It felt alien.

- Rashid Johnson

Business, Father, Felt, Cluttered

I was born in Evanston, about three blocks away from the Chicago border. My mother, at the time, was finishing her Ph.D. in African History at Northwestern University. Soon after my birth, my parents split, and my father moved to Wicker Park, which is on the north side of the city.

- Rashid Johnson

City, University, Away, Northwestern

The thing that turned out to be interesting about CB radios was the ability to call out in the world with anonymity. You choose your handle. Race and class become non-signifiers.

- Rashid Johnson

Interesting, Race, Turned, Anonymity

I was going through a divorce, and I had a lot of reading I was doing, and I developed what was probably a serious anxiety problem - because I was about as poor as you can get, in graduate school, and trying to make my work and keep my head above water.

- Rashid Johnson

Doing, Through, About, Graduate School

I've been interested in LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka's work for quite a while. My first introduction to LeRoi Jones was when my mother used to read me the 'Dead Lecturer' poems when I was a kid.

- Rashid Johnson

Work, Been, Read, Quite A While

I'd begun to collect things that were lying in piles on the floor of my studio. I had run out of space, and I started to build shelves. I turned around one day and realized that that was the vehicle for carrying so many of the things that I was looking at and talking about, so they went from the walls to the works.

- Rashid Johnson

Studio, Works, Turned, Shelves

Dealing with actors is incredibly complex because they oftentimes are like pieces of clay. They want to be told how you want it done. You have to then decide if you want to be the teller or if you want to give them agency.

- Rashid Johnson

Give, Dealing, Oftentimes, Teller

I attempted to do yoga in German, and it was not particularly successful. So at that time, I started thinking about the idea of just movement and how I could move to de-stress.

- Rashid Johnson

Move, German, Particularly, Attempted

I've always had an interest in complicating the way that we perceive the black character, whether it's the black academic or scholar or activist or black intellectual.

- Rashid Johnson

Black, Always, Activist, Scholar

My composition often goes toward the black middle class or the black super-wealthy or strong historical black figures.

- Rashid Johnson

Strong, Middle, Figures, Middle Class

My father had a big brick cell phone, before anyone had a cell phone, because he was really just into that kind of thing - communication devices. I grew up between my father's laboratory and my mother's library.

- Rashid Johnson

Father, Big, Before, Brick

I have an investment in the signifying aspects of the material as well as an understanding of antecedent bodies of work. That informs the way I make marks and make decisions.

- Rashid Johnson

Work, Bodies, Aspects, Marks

When I was younger, I remember there was a really famous book, and it was called 'The People Could Fly.' And so this idea of, kind of like, black characters kind of jumping into space and kind of the challenge that they presented to gravity I thought was really interesting.

- Rashid Johnson

Thought, I Remember, Jumping, Presented

Race, class, childhood experience, the books I found on my mother's bookshelf, the albums I found in my father's basement - these things are all part of who I am and will always be a part of my work.

- Rashid Johnson

Always, Basement, Albums, Bookshelf

I started rereading 'The Dutchman' - I kind of just pulled it off the shelf.

- Rashid Johnson

Kind, Started, Pulled, Shelf

When I was younger, I would see shea butter being sold on the street, and I was interested how people were still coating themselves in the theater of Africanism. You see that in dashikis and hairstyles and music.

- Rashid Johnson

Still, Butter, Sold, Hairstyles

I say that I suffer from what Rosalind Krauss was calling the post-medium condition, where an artist essentially employs several mediums in order to bring to life whatever specific ideas that they have. For me it's always been that way.

- Rashid Johnson

Artist, Been, Several, Employs

As an undergrad at Columbia College in Chicago, I came across 'Boondocks,' and then I watched the 'Boondocks' television show.

- Rashid Johnson

College, Television, Show, Chicago

Growing up in Chicago, there was a very particular type of home that would display the black Jesus figure. It wasn't a radical home. You wouldn't find these in a Black Panther house. There's still a strong allegiance to Christianity.

- Rashid Johnson

Strong, Christianity, Very, Chicago

'The New Black Yoga' originally was born from a film that I had made prior called 'Black Yoga.' And I was living in Berlin at the time, dealing with a lot of anxiety and stress around the project that I was working on, which is not an abnormal thing for me.

- Rashid Johnson

Project, Yoga, Had, Prior

Oh, yeah, I'm all about ritual.

- Rashid Johnson

Oh, About, Ritual, Oh Yeah

The way that light hits objects, I think, is one of the more important things that sculpture and photography share.

- Rashid Johnson

Think, More, I Think, Sculpture

The way that light hits objects in life, three-dimensional objects before you photograph them, is really the story of photography.

- Rashid Johnson

Before, Objects, Them, Three-Dimensional

The whole ability to look at the complexity of race and any sort of associated -ism and still find humor, that's a very interesting space.

- Rashid Johnson

Complexity, Very, Still, Associated

My father owned a small company, called Gundel Electronics, where he did community band radio and some repair stuff.

- Rashid Johnson

Small, Repair, Some, Owned

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