Were you familiar with his work?

My children would talk about him. The craziest thing that’s happened so far is that all of a sudden, I’ve achieved the status of a demigod among them and their friends.

Did you give legal permission for Kanye to refer to your painting?

As far as I’m concerned, it has nothing to do with copyright. A work of art goes out there, and there’s a stream that activates and widens the communal imagination. It was an honor that I was being quoted. There was no money involved at all.

Did he offer?

It wasn’t offered, but I wouldn’t have taken it. That would’ve cheapened the whole thing — this building of an amazing bridge between aesthetic realms that are feeding off of the same information.

Recently we’ve seen rap interact with contemporary art more, as in Drake’s using James Turrell-inspired visuals for “Hotline Bling,” and Jay Z working with Marina Abramovic for “Picasso Baby.” Is there any part of you that feels icky for being sucked into this world of celebrity?

First of all, a lot of art that makes the crossover into hip-hop is not interesting to me in the least — and not so interesting to Kanye, at this point. For Kanye, who lives in this world of celebrity and fame, the way I understand him now is that he’s much more like Andy Warhol. He said one time, “I am Warhol” out of frustration. But he’s like an exploded internet version of Warhol allowing these celebs to hang themselves with their own words while he sits there and says, “That’s fabulous.” Warhol was a mirror for the times. When Kanye goes through all these shenanigans, he’s mirroring the times. He said it himself: It’s performance art. His whole life is performance art.

Did you recognize everyone portrayed in the video?

I did, except for some of the hip-hop people. That seems to be the thing people are focusing on more — I’m sure he did it to be incendiary — but the real subject of the video is that many of these people in the bed are repulsive. But everything about the video kept me at bay in regard to making a judgment on them. Every time I would think a thought like that, I would see them sleeping and vulnerable, like babies. We’re all the same. They’re just famous.