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Quote by Jerry Saltz

“Damien Hirst is the Elvis of the English art world, its ayatollah, deliverer, and big-thinking entrepreneurial potty-mouthed prophet and front man. Hirst synthesizes punk, Pop Art, Jeff Koons, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, and Catholicism.”

Quote by Jerry Saltz

Author

Jerry Saltz is a renowned art critic, born in March 1951. His career began in the 1980s, and he is known for his unique artistic perspective and critical style. Saltz's work covers a wide range of fields from modern art to contemporary art, and his reviews are frequently published in magazines such as The New Yorker. more

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“Decades ago, Gerhard Richter found a painterly philosopher's stone. Like Jackson Pollock before him, he discovered something that had been in painting all along, always overlooked or discounted.”

Found Painting Stones Philosopher Decades Overlooked Pollock

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Early-twentieth-century abstraction is art's version of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It's the idea that changed everything everywhere: quickly, decisively, for good.”

Art Ideas Century Changed Theory Versions Abstraction Twentieth Century Relativity Theories Of Relativity

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Every movement that slays its gods creates new ones, of course. I loathe talk of the sixties and seventies being a 'Greatest Generation' of artists, but if we're going to use such idiotic appellations, let this one also be applied to the artists, curators, and gallerists who emerged in the first half of the nineties.”

Ifs Firsts Use Artist Courses Half Generations Movement Sixty Seventies Loathe Idiotic Curator Greatest Generation

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Everyone goes to the same exhibitions and the same parties, stays in the same handful of hotels, eats at the same no-star restaurants, and has almost the same opinions. I adore the art world, but this is copycat behavior in a sphere that prides itself on independent thinking.”

Thinking World Art Stars Party Opinion Pride Behavior Independent Restaurants Hotel Spheres Adore Handful Exhibitions Art World Independent Thinking Copycats

Author:Jerry Saltz

“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.”

Art Made Wanted Artist Space Numbers Growing Late Size Seventies Gallery Exhibits

Author:Jerry Saltz

“Galleries needn't be exactly like White Columns purely because times are bad again. But the idea of this special space could - should - help shape what comes next.”

Should Ideas Helping Next Space White Special Shapes Gallery Columns

Author:Jerry Saltz

“I also take pleasure in the so-called negative power in Grotjahn's work. That is, I love his paintings for what they are not. Unlike much art of the past decade, Grotjahn isn't simply working from a prescribed checklist of academically acceptable, curator-approved 'isms' and twists.”

Art Past Pleasure Painting Negative Decades Acceptable Twists Approved Isms Curator Checklists

Author:Jerry Saltz

“I don't know much about auctions. I sometimes go to previews and see art sardined into ugly rooms. I've gawked at the gaudy prices, and gaped at well-clad crowds of happy white people conspicuously spending hundreds of millions of dollars.”

People Knows Wells Art Sometimes White Rooms Millions Dollars Crowds Ugly Spending Auctions Gaudy Preview

Author:Jerry Saltz

“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.”

Way Want Feels Shows Eye Artist My Own Walks Mistake Audience Critics Cheating Exhibitions Curator

Author:Jerry Saltz

“I don't plan out my visits rigorously, but I do have a list of about 125 New York galleries, alternative spaces, museums, and so forth that I visit regularly. That's the closest thing I have to a strategy: I go to a lot of places, many that artists don't visit.”

Artist Space Plans New York Strategy Lists Alternatives Museums Closest Gallery

Author:Jerry Saltz