Asked about the paintings in his tidy Brooklyn studio (above), Glenn Ligon (right) jocularly claims they’re "just wampum. I don’t even make work to sell anymore. I just make it to trade." For what? you might wonder. "All those artists that I can’t really afford to buy." His numerous collectors will, no doubt, hope he’s kidding. Whatever Ligon hasn’t already traded away can be seen in "Glenn Ligon: America," a 25-year retrospective that opens March 10 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York. He has also contributed to a volume that will be published this spring. " A People on the Cover" explores the cultural and political history of black people by analyzing the images and graphics on the front of books written by and about them.

To view items from the artist's studio, with Ligon's accompanying commentary, click on the slide show at left.

View Slideshow: Glenn Ligon

"Glenn Ligon" originally appeared in the February 2011 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' February 2011 Table of Contents.