Rago Auctions

The way that one serves is to serve art first. And the way you serve art is by being to yourself. You can't have two masters. You can't be afraid to hurt and to deal with subjects....I would just be happy if Black artists, Black American artists could be free to express themselves. I think then they could do their real job, which is being courageous citizens, courageous artists.
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Some people will only be satisfied with some kind of heroic image which is very far from the truth....We've already come to understand that it's about white perceptions of Black people. And they may not be pretty. And they may be stupid. We didn't make up these images. So why should we take the heat? But it's satire. It's the satire that kills the serpent, you know.

— Robert Colescott, interview for Smithsonian Archives of American Art, 1994