David Salle
1952–
David Salle’s paintings are inspired by a medley of popular and art-historical sources that he juxtaposes to startling, and often provocative, effect, in a manner evoking film montage. The rectangular compartments that subdivide Sextant in Dogtown contain a pastiche of painterly styles and subjects. Jester-like characters are adjacent to scantily clad female figures; black-and-white panels counterpoise brightly colored ones. Confronted with disjunctive images and no evident narrative or overarching motif, we are left to forge connections and surmise meaning. For example, extracting the connection between a large bird and a half-dressed woman is rendered additionally complex for the viewer by the multiple vantage points available. Here, we are at once looking at the woman, are looked at by the clowns, and observe the cartographer in the upper right-hand corner looking. The act of seeing—or not seeing—is indeed thematized: in two frames, the woman’s head is truncated above the neck, while in a third it is cloaked.
Salle’s work straddles two of the most significant movements in American art of the late 1970s and 1980s—the resurgence of figurative painting, one shared with artists such as Eric Fischl and Francesco Clemente, and the use of appropriated imagery by the group of artists referred to as the Pictures Generation, including Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. Salle’s paintings, drawings, photographs, and films of the past three decades represent by turns an indictment and a celebration of our fast-paced, consumerist, image-saturated, postmodern age.
Introduction
David Salle (born September 28, 1952; last name pronounced "Sally") is an American Postmodern painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer. Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and lives and works in East Hampton, New York. He earned a BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, where he studied with John Baldessari. Salle’s work first came to public attention in New York City in the early 1980s.
Wikidata identifier
Q2637678
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 9, 2025.
Introduction
American painter known for his composite paintings juxtaposing fragmented figures and environmental images, often using photographs from romance and pornographic magazines as his source material.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, painter, photographer
ULAN identifier
500027321
Names
David Salle
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 9, 2025.
