Kanye West at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, May 10, 2011. Photo by Jason Persse, via
Kanye spoke at Oxford today and had a few words to say about "real art"āa subject he's an expert in as of late. Thanks to Twitter (#YeezOx) and The Tab we were able to pull together a few choice quotes on topics like classism, celebrity, and modern creativity:"My goal, if I was going to do art, fine art, would have been to become Picasso or greater.""I approach creativity like a sport, where if I have a drawing I react just like a jock: LOOK AT THE FUCKING DRAWING RIGHT THERE YEAH!""Chris Rock and everyone else at every single media publication called My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy the best album of the last 25 years. This only came through collaboration."āIād see toys that some people would buy for my daughter and Iād say this toy isnāt quality. I donāt want my daughter playing with this. Thereās not enough love put into this, this is just manufactured with the will to sell, and not the will of inspiration."āTime is the only luxury. Itās the only thing you canāt get back. If you lose your luggage ā Iām not gonna say the obvious brand of luggage that Iād normally say because Iāve got a meeting with them soon ā if you lose your expensive luggage at the airport, you can get that back. You canāt get the time back.""People say Iāve got a bad reputation. I think Iāve got the best reputation in the building.""I donāt want to diss anyone at the American Academy, Iām sure itās equal to the Art Institute of Chicago by now, but at the time I was going I would look around at the work of the class and not feel inspired by the teachers, and I kinda, the idea of being a fine artist, thatās a really difficult profession to get into, to be respected in, to make money at."āWeāre all creatives here, weāre all born artists. Some people are artists of business, some people are artists of composition.""Iām proud of the consistency of the performances Iāve done since Iāve been out here. And it comes from four would-be egomaniacs coming out and being forced to work together. The best lighting guy on the planet, the best staging guy, the best video guy, another staging guy, a guy with a laptop for no reasonā¦To be able to deliver, back to back to back, extremely successful, inspiring, groundbreaking, visual, visceral, creative moments that otherwise would have been challenged."Related:Let Kanye Tell You If You're an ArtistKanye Is An Iconā¦LiterallyWerner Herzog Motivational Posters Inspire the Unending Burden of Existence
On Ambition:
On Motivation:
On Collaboration:
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On Craftsmanship:
On Planning:
On Criticism:
On Artists' Role in the Economy:
I took a photo #sorrynotsorry #kanyewest pic.twitter.com/QNYsaE6dUF
ā Aled Jones (@AledR) March 2, 2015