Best quotes by Idris Khan

Idris Khan

Idris Khan

British artist

Idris Khan (born 1978) is a British artist based in London. Khan's work draws from a diverse range of cultural sources including literature, history, art, music and religion to create densely layered imagery that is both abstract and figurative and addresses narratives of history, cumulative experience and the metaphysical collapse of time into single moments.

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ArtA lot of people in the art world hate to use the word "Photoshop", like it's cheating or easy or something. I say bollocks to that - for me, it's my tool, my paintbrush if you like, and lets me create my own visual language.

I'm not a political artist in any way, but if an idea takes me somewhere or something is emotionally impactful, I find a way to make a painting that encapsulates it.

I always wanted to make an abstract photograph. I would photograph walls, sports interiors, marks on the walls people made. Even looking back it makes so much sense. It's like it was a fight against the photograph.

Recently, I can't seem to take a straight photograph without thinking that what I am photographing won't be the final image - like the world in front of me is not good enough or something.

Don't be put off by someone telling you that your image looks too digital; maybe that's the way it's supposed to look.

It is hard to avoid the aspect of time when producing what ones sees as a photograph.... my images [are] something that is not a frozen moment, but an image made up of many moments and that is created over time rather than taken.

The photograph is a tool used to take you back to a certain point in one's life, to remember a face or a place you once stood. I feel there is always something quite melancholic about a photograph.