Artist Talk: Glenn Ligon

American artist Glenn Ligon delivers an Artist Talk on occasion of the Menil’s recent acquisition of his work, Untitled (Orpheus and Eurydice). Ligon discusses the concept of America in his work, from his text-based neon sculptures that illuminate words, phrases, and sentences to his highly textured language-based paintings that draw their content from American history, popular culture, and literary works by writers such as James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Gertrude Stein, and Jean Genet, among others.
About the Artist:
Glenn Ligon was born in 1960 in New York where he currently lives and works. He received a BA from Wesleyan University and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. In 2011 the Whitney Museum of American Art held a mid-career retrospective of his work, Glenn Ligon: America, organized by Scott Rothkopf, that traveled nationally. Ligon has also been the subject of solo museum exhibitions at the Camden Arts Centre in London, the Power Plant in Toronto, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, among others. His work has been included in major international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2015 and 1997), Berlin Biennale (2014), Istanbul Biennial (2011), Documenta XI (2002), and Gwangju Biennale (2000).
Public Program of The Menil Collection, Houston, TX. January 31, 2020.