ART-PRESENTATION: David Salle
Whereas modernist-era painting was rigidly fixed to the idea that a presentation of an image should stay as true to the authentic experience of that image as possible, David Salle was using these same realistic based images as components of overall pastiche works that compelled the viewer to also see them as shape, color, and form, pushing them onto a heroic scale hinting at Abstract Expressionism.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Archive
David Salle’s paintings reflect what is essentially a collage aesthetic whereby he takes images out of their original context and recontextualizes them into complex ensembles. Like Robert Rauschenberg before him, Salle denies any hierarchy of subject matter by including both “high” and “low” imagery in a single canvas: famous art masterpieces with cartoon figures, high-end designed objects with pornographic imagery, and ornamental motifs with reproductions of newspaper photos, for example. In addition to mixing high and low imagery, Salle also mixes differing styles, including contour line drawings, modeled motifs, found objects, grisaille, crudely rendered images, and highly polished forms. Although he denied any iconographic intent in his pictures, his consistent use of aggressively posed nude women has elicited much response from feminists and others who object to the voyeuristic nature of his work. From 2004 onward, David Salle has experimented repeatedly with the vortex motif, mixing representational images with what has typically been an Abstract and cartoonish form. David Salle in his solo exhibition at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Pparis presents a series of paintings on canvas and paintings on paper, these works combine a vibrant palette with a dense and dynamic composition. The artist juxtaposes shapes and heterogeneous images that link the photographic to the painterly, while creating disruptions between black and white areas and bold color tones. As a whole, the painting gives the impression of a visual collage and marks a step forward in the development of the American painter’s practice. Following this new impulse, David Salle explores a more direct and gestural relationship with the very matter of painting and colour, to the point of freeing it from all forms of representation. The works on paper are originally based on enlargements of ‘60s Life Magazine pages dating back from the artist’s youth. David Salle then paints on it until the source image disappears.
Info: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7 rue Debelleyme, Paris, Duration: 21/1-25/2/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, http://www.ropac.net
