Courtesy of David Salle/Licensed by VAGA, New York
David Salle: Some Pictures from the 80s
Mary Boone Gallery
541 West 24th Street
New York, New York
May 8 – June 26, 2010
On loan from the Philip Johnson Glass House Collection:
David Salle
Miner, 1985
96” by 162”
acrylic, oil, wood and metal tables, canvas, fabric
Miner (1985) is on view in David Salle: Some Pictures from the 80s at Mary Boone Gallery’s Chelsea location, 541 West 24th Street, from May 8th to June 26th, 2010.
Born in Oklahoma in 1952, Salle gained recognition in the early 1980s. Often grouped with his peers, who include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eric Fischl, and Julian Schnabel, these artists were categorized as “Neo-Expressionists.” In contrast to the preceding decade, during which minimalism, conceptual art, and arte povera emerged, Neo-Expressionism embraced representation, and the bold, undaunted hand of the artist is clearly evident in each individual artist’s work. Within this grouping, Salle’s work is distinguished by its seemingly unrelated, layered images that are superimposed on the canvas and often paired with a second canvas. Only by looking at each layer carefully does the viewer begin to connect images, creating associations and meaning drawn from their own individual experiences and opinions.
Miner, a large scale work, is composed of four parts: two painted canvases and two broken café tables. On the right, a seated male-figure leans forward. Depicted only in black and white, his eyes are blank and distant. Floating above each of his forearms, in the bicep area, is a purple line drawing of a ring inset with a large jewel, presumable the end product of his labor. Attached perpendicular to the canvas, on each side of his head is a white café table. The wooden table tops are smashed from below, such that sharp, broken surfaces protrude toward the viewer.
To the contrary on the left, colorful line drawings are painted and layered onto a striped fabric. The drawings are difficult to read, although each layer is differentiated by color. The upper body and profile of patrician woman in patterned garb and the column capitals of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin slowly emerge from the surface: The female figure has a furrowed brow. The office does not depict the floor or any activity that occurs within its walls.
For me, this painting comments on both consumer culture and corporate culture, two sides of the same coin. Simmering hostility directly underneath obvious pathos overwhelm the right side of the artwork, while the left side is troubled, impersonal, and cold; such that the striped fabric begins to evoke societal striations.
Acquired in 1985 by Philip Johnson, Miner was first at Mary Boone Gallery, New York, then loaned to the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh for its triennial, Carnegie International 1985. This work was prominently displayed in David Salle, an exhibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in 1986, travelling from 1987-88 to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and The Menil Collection, Houston.
David Salle lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Irene Shum Allen, May 8, 2010
EXHIBITION WEBSITE:
http://www.maryboonegallery.com/exhibitions/2009-2010/David-Salle/
GALLERY WEBSITE:
http://www.maryboonegallery.com/
SUGGESTED READING:
David Salle: Some Pictures from the 80s
essay by Klaus Kertess
published by Mary Boone Gallery, 2010
David Salle: Distance from Nowhere
edited by Veit Forner and Frank-Thorsten Moll
published by Kehrer Verlag, 2010
David Salle: 1979-94
edited by David Whitney
published by Rizzoli, 1994
David Salle
by Janet Kardon and essay by Lisa Phillips
published by Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1986
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Cultural Experiences in Person
s Together: This fall marks our fourth year working with the New Canaan High School students and their teachers. This year’s projects included landscape photography and oral history films featuring local notable architects John Black Lee, John Johansen, and Fred Noyes speaking about his father, Eliot Noyes. These projects bring generations together to explore the essential history of New Canaan and Modernism. All of the student-produced oral histories and many of their photographs 
As an additional thank you for your donation of $1,000 or more, we will send you a copy of the just published, limited edition Library of Philip Johnson. Written by Birch Cooper and Jordan Hruska, this beautifully illustrated book examines 100 titles from the architect’s Library/Study located at the Glass House site and features an introduction by Architect Robert A. M. Stern, textual analyses and 350 photographs. 
