77 Jerry Saltz Quotes for You to Enjoy

Jerry Saltz

American Critic

Born: Feb 19, 1951

Art Artists People Work World You

Related authors: George Steiner Henry Louis Gates James Wolcott Kimberly Guilfoyle Margaret Fuller Pauline Kael Roger Ebert bell hooks

After 1909, Monet drastically enlarged his brushstrokes, disintegrated his images, and broke through the taming constraints and delicacy of Impressionism for good. Nineteen gnarly paintings, starting in 1909 and carrying through his final seventeen years, finish off the notion that Monet went happily ever after into lily-land. Jerry Saltz

Good Final Seventeen Nineteen Seventeen Years Drastically Broke Carrying Finish Constraints Delicacy Through Gnarly His Years Off Impressionism After Disintegrated Happily Notion Paintings Ever Ever After Images Starting

Appropriation is the idea that ate the art world. Go to any Chelsea gallery or international biennial and you'll find it. It's there in paintings of photographs, photographs of advertising, sculpture with ready-made objects, videos using already-existing film. Jerry Saltz

Art is for anyone. It just isn't for everyone. Still, over the past decade, its audience has hugely grown, and that's irked those outside the art world, who get irritated at things like incomprehensibility or money. Jerry Saltz

The New York art world readily proves people wrong. Just when folks say that things stink and flibbertigibbet critics wish the worst on us all because we're not pure enough, good omens appear. Jerry Saltz

Art Good People World Pure Wish Enough Say Worst Critics Folks Wrong New Readily Because Proves Stink Art World York Just New York Us Appear Things

It's great that New York has large spaces for art. But the enormous immaculate box has become a dated, even oppressive place. Many of these spaces were designed for sprawling installations, large paintings, and the Relational Aesthetics work of the past fifteen years. Jerry Saltz

Work Art Great Become Past Enormous Immaculate Dated New Box Sprawling Aesthetic Were Years Oppressive York New York Spaces Place Fifteen Large Many Paintings Even Designed

I like something about George W. Bush. A lot. After spending more than a decade having almost physiological-chemical reactions anytime I saw him, getting the heebie-jeebies whenever he spoke - after being sure from the start that he was a Gremlin on the wing of America - I really like the paintings of George W. Bush. Jerry Saltz

Spending Saw About Something Wing Having More He Almost Spoke Like Reactions Him Sure George George W Lot George W. Bush Than Decade America Getting Gremlin Whenever Being After Anytime Bush Really Paintings Start

Now people look at 'The Scream' or Van Gogh's 'Irises' or a Picasso and see its new content: money. Auction houses inherently equate capital with value. Jerry Saltz

People Money Value Van See Picasso New Look Houses Content Equate Auction Gogh Scream Capital Inherently Now

I don't often go to curator or artist walk-throughs of exhibitions. For a critic, it feels like cheating. I want to see shows with my own eyes, making my own mistakes, viewing exhibitions the way most of their audience sees them. Jerry Saltz

Of all the biennials, triennials, quadrennials, internationals, and massive group shows, Documenta, established in 1955 and held once every five years in Kassel, Germany, is seen as the most serious. A statement show. Jerry Saltz

Seen Group Every Once Statement Most Massive Years Five Germany Established Held Show Shows Serious

Galleries began growing in both number and size in the late seventies, when artists who worked in lofts wanted to exhibit their work in spaces similar to the ones the art was made in. Jerry Saltz

Work Art Made Late Seventies Similar Both Exhibit Began Artists Size Wanted Spaces Galleries Worked Who Growing Number

There's something pleasing about large, well-lit spaces. I love that dealers are willing to take massive chances in order to give this much room to their artists. Most of all, I love that more galleries showing more art gives more artists a shot. Jerry Saltz

When art wins, everyone wins. Jerry Saltz

Art Everyone Wins

Art is changing. Again. Here. Now. Opportunities to witness this are rare, so attend and observe. Jerry Saltz

Art Witness Opportunities Rare Changing Attend Observe Again Now Here

I see artists bored by light-without-heat, irked at gigantic galleries' pushing out art-as-product, leaving behind the over determined for the undetermined, guided by interior voices and bringing us out of a long tunnel to new blueness. Jerry Saltz

Interior Long Guided Out Gigantic Bored See Determined Voices Pushing Over New Leaving Behind Artists Tunnel Galleries Us Bringing

Art is good, bad, boring, ugly, useful to us or not. Jerry Saltz

Art Good Ugly Bad Boring Us Useful

I see around 100 shows a month, going from Niketown-size palaces where you feel like yelling, to storefronts in Bushwick. Each has to pay the bills; keep artists happy; and cope with collectors (oy!), curators (ay-yi-yi), critics (woo-hoo!), and occasionally plumbers. That their fiscal life often hangs in the balance only adds to the energy. Jerry Saltz

Life You Balance Happy Energy Pay Month Adds Collectors Critics See Only Feel Like Occasionally Around Fiscal Yelling Going Often Artists Where Bills Shows Each Keep Palaces Cope

Yes, 85 percent of the art you see isn't any good. But everyone has a different opinion about which 85 percent is bad. That in turn creates fantastically unstable interplay and argument. Jerry Saltz

Art Good You Argument Everyone Bad See About Percent Unstable Opinion Yes Any Different Which Turn Creates

The greatest work of art about New York? The question seems nebulous. The city's magic and majesty are distilled in the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand. Jerry Saltz

Work Art Distilled City Photographs Magic About Seems Majesty New Greatest Question York New York Paul Strand

Abstract Expressionism - the first American movement to have a worldwide influence - was remarkably short-lived: It heated up after World War II and was all but done for by 1960 (although visit any art school today and you'll find a would-be Willem de Kooning). Jerry Saltz

Today War Art You World School First Worldwide Visit Would-Be Find Remarkably Abstract Although Up Art School American Heated Any Done Movement Influence After Short-Lived Expressionism World War World War II

My culture-deprived, aspirational mother dragged me once a month from our northern suburb - where the word art never came up - to the Art Institute of Chicago. I hated it. Jerry Saltz

Art Me Mother Word Our Once Month Hated Never Institute Came Chicago Up Northern Where Suburb Dragged

I'm noticing a new approach to art making in recent museum and gallery shows. It flickered into focus at the New Museum's 'Younger Than Jesus' last year and ran through the Whitney Biennial, and I'm seeing it blossom and bear fruit at 'Greater New York,' MoMA P.S. 1's twice-a-decade extravaganza of emerging local talent. Jerry Saltz

Art Fruit Focus Year Approach Local Ran Seeing Emerging Bear Through New Talent New Approach Greater Making Blossom Than York New York Younger Gallery Noticing Whitney Shows Jesus Last Recent Museum Last Year

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