This 40-year survey of David Salle’s paintings at The Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut, shows an artist embracing the fractured nature of images that appear all around us and the many contradictions that arise by this visual overload. In Salle’s world, all images seem to have equal importance, can be depicted in different styles, and become an integral part of the overall composition. In some ways, he has foreshadowed our current era of social media, as we scroll endlessly through a barrage of images and videos on Instagram or TikTok.
The non-linear nature of his compositions alternates between focused and dispersed, although even in his most collagelike canvasses, the emphasis on individual parts never disrupts its gestalt. For example, on the left side of Ice Flow, 2001, which is divided into two main sections, a man sits under a tree and points to the sky. The forms are outlined, and the colors are applied loosely, with muted hues of green, blue, violet, gray, and a pale yellow. Several smaller canvasses depicting lemons, a statue of an angel, and a shirt with a harlequin pattern are embedded in a larger canvas on the right side depicting two figures sitting on rocks near an idyllic river with mountains in the background, with a contour drawing of the head and bust of another woman painted over the top. Similiar to the Picture-in-picture feature on televisions and now cellphones, we accept that these disparate elements belong, whether Salle wants us to solve the puzzle or not.
David Salle, Ice Flow, 2001. Oil and acrylic on canvas and linen. 74 x 126 in. Photo: Chris Bors.
King Kong, 1983, shows two nude beachgoers walking on the sand with a bold logo-like text of the title of the work taking up the central portion of the canvas. This painting uses the addition of three-dimensional objects, in this case, a wooden side table with an electric light, to create a cinematic environment. Although a comparison could be made to Rauschenberg’s combines, the feel is more of a stage set, making one question the nature of painting itself and if it can live up to this theatricality.
David Salle, King Kong, 1983. Oil and acrylic on canvas with electric light and wood table. 123 x 96 x 26 inches. Photo: Chris Bors.
In his recent Tree of Life series, Salle appropriates cartoons by Peter Arno, the influential New Yorker cartoonist active from the 1920s through the 1960s, and juxtaposes them with a schematic tree that bisects the canvas. Many feature rectangular panels on the bottom half with an abstract composition, that stands in stark contrast to the stereotypical gag cartoons scenes above, dealing with simplified, often sexualized conflict between men and women. Salle masks the interaction of the cartoon figures in Tree of Life #6, with the tree, its leaves, and the addition of plants and flowers, making the impact of the meaning behind the cartoon secondary, with the black and white depiction becoming just another visual element, no more important than the other components. If Salle’s longstanding approach seems detached, he seems to have anticipated our present reality in which there is hardly time to focus on the overabundance of visuals and information before the cycle repeats ad infinitum.
David Salle, Tree of Life #6, 2020, Two panels: oil and acrylic on linen (top panel), oil and ink on canvas (bottom panel), 96 x 72 in. Photo: Chris Bors.
David Salle, The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT, November 16, 2021 – April 2nd, 2022