David Salle

David Salle has taken the device of pastiche, which is central to modern art, and made it both the form and content of his work.

David Salle reflects the ongoing modern preoccupation with the problem of reconciling one’s individuality with the constant input of images and ideas from the outside, media-dominated world.

Angels in the Rain contains images of angel statuary, performing bears and acrobats as well as examples of the portraits, interiors and still lifes that continue to distinguish David Salle’s work. His works suggests a dramatic monologue or stand-up comedy routine.

David Salle is the great pictorial conversationalist exploring the intangible relationships between subjects and their depictions.

Portraits, interiors, still-life and abstraction are all conversing in similar time, together in a hyper-textual visual story. The connections do not seem forced, so much as nearly random.

Using cinematic techniques of quick edits and the surprises of super-imposition, Salle’s images float in a world of simultaneity and equilibrium.

Salle’s images are all images which you can see through. They have a transparency, or they have openings, they have a space you can pass through.

David Salle’s images come from a variety of sources including magazines, stock photographs, and pornography. Salle puts these images together in a painting the way another artist might create a collage using scraps of paper.