Richard Phillips Quotes & Sayings

“There was a belief after World War I that painting could be an act of civil revolt. I want this exhibition, 'New Museum,' to be an act of civil disobedience. It's not so much about the New Museum on the Bowery, but the idea of challenging museums as projections of cultural authority. It's painting as insurgency.”

“When you think about Dada and the great moments in Modern Art, it's always the sense of when you're not sure that art is most likely to be occurring.”

“Makeup ignites a psychological transformation of both the wearer and the observer. My paintings sought to locate the subject of art within the manipulation of that altered predisposition.”

“'Interview' created indelible images of Pop Art that arrived on people's doorsteps every month.”

“When we can't determine what is art - when you get to that point where we're not sure, that's the greatest likelihood that we're actually experiencing something great. But I think that's what the art world is most afraid of, because you lose that security. Then we don't know how to assign evaluation, whether it's cultural or otherwise.”

“I try to get out of an image's way in order to let it articulate what is hidden.”

“My work, in a certain way, got started in 1996 when I did an exhibition of thirteen paintings that were solely based on fashion imagery.”

“Art is a thing where, the least likely thing that you think is going to be art, is precisely the thing that is going to be art. And I would even hold that true to a reality television show... maybe the entire overarching process of the show actually exists as an artistic structure.”

“I have the utmost admiration for makeup artists. It's truly magical what they can accomplish with their materials. The face and the body are really their canvas.”

“Fashion is not separate from art. It is inextricably woven into how we open ourselves to the world and articulates the exchanges of power both real and imagined.”