In 1989, Glenn Ligon was awarded a grant in college for drawing. He then used this to take time off from his job to become a "real artist". Glenn's artwork in 1991 was then displayed in the Whitney Museum in New York, and ranges from colorful pieces to black and white pieces.
Ever since he was young, Ligon knew he wanted to be an artist, so his mom sent him to take art classes. His mom, however, was worried he wouldn't profit from being an artist but he persevered and continued to do his work. He wanted to become an abstract expressionist but knew it wouldn't "cut it", but eventually came back to his practice as displayed in the museum.
He started to incorporate his own life experiences and things that inspired him in his day to day life into his own artwork. He was so literal in his artwork, though, that he wanted to try something new, so he began to become more abstract and telling the viewers of his artwork a more abstracted version of his own life so that whoever was seeing his work could interpret it in their own special way. He has very literal works of art , like the ones displayed of just words and quotes he favored, and other pieces of work that was more abstracted and left for the viewer to digest on their own.
Ligon mentions this idea of creating a purpose for an artwork as you go. He uses the idea to help push him to just “create” rather than always planning. His mistakes and mess-ups are only minor setbacks to him, and the beauty in doing this, he mentions, is to understand that a piece doesn’t have to be perfect. The art of just making and creating is what makes the whole work valuable and beautiful from his perspective.
