CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/8/2017

Michael Williams and the truth about painting

Truth About Painting 2 (2017) is reproduced from Michael Williams, published to accompany the artist’s current exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art, on view through August 27. In response to Suzanne Hudson’s question about allegory in this painting, Williams says, “If I’m going to make a picture about the truth about painting, then there’s a sort of logic to this, but at the same time, it’s maybe meant to be illogical or too complex to be understood.” He goes on to compare the work to jenkem. “Jenkem is a drug that African street children supposedly make out of feces and urine. I like the idea of a total system, and I think that art is one, where we can generate and learn internally. Like the way my paintings, these products of my body, can have an effect on me. I also always think about how painting feels somehow related to smearing your waste on the wall.”