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Quotes by

Jerry Saltz

Money is something that can be measured art is not. Its all subjective. – Jerry Saltz

After its hothouse incubation in the seventies, appropriation breathed important new life into art. This life flowered spectacularly over the decades – even if its now close to aesthetic kudzu. – Jerry Saltz

A metaphysical tour de force of untethered meaning and involuting interlocking contrapuntal rhythms, The Clock is more than a movie or even a work of art. It is so strange and other-ish that it becomes a stream-of-consciousness algorithm unto itself – something almost inhuman. – Jerry Saltz

Contrary to popular opinion, things dont go stale particularly fast in the art world. – Jerry Saltz

The New York art world readily proves people wrong. Just when folks say that things stink and flibbertigibbet critics wish the worst on us all because were not pure enough, good omens appear. – Jerry Saltz

I dont know much about auctions. I sometimes go to previews and see art sardined into ugly rooms. Ive gawked at the gaudy prices, and gaped at well-clad crowds of happy white people conspicuously spending hundreds of millions of dollars. – Jerry Saltz

To me, nothing in the art world is neutral. The idea of disinterest strikes me as boring, dishonest, dubious, and uninteresting. – Jerry Saltz

Its great that New York has large spaces for art. But the enormous immaculate box has become a dated, even oppressive place. Many of these spaces were designed for sprawling installations, large paintings, and the Relational Aesthetics work of the past fifteen years. – Jerry Saltz

I love art dealers. In some ways, theyre my favorite people in the art world. Really. I love that they put their money where their taste is, create their own aesthetic universes, support artists, employ people, and do all of this while letting us see art for free. Many are visionaries. – Jerry Saltz

The art world is an all-volunteer force. No one has to be here if he or she doesnt want to be, and we should be associating with anyone we want to. – Jerry Saltz

The giant white cube is now impeding rather than enhancing the rhythms of art. It preprograms a viewers journey, shifts the emphasis from process to product, and lacks individuality and openness. Its not that art should be seen only in rutty bombed-out environments, but it should seem alive. – Jerry Saltz

I see 30 to 40 gallery shows a week, and no matter what kind of mood Im in, no matter how bad the art is, I almost always feel better afterward. I can learn as much from bad art as from good. – Jerry Saltz

Too many younger artists, critics, and curators are fetishizing the sixties, transforming the period into a deformed cult, a fantasy religion, a hip brand, and a crippling disease. – Jerry Saltz

One argument goes that recessions are good for female artists because when money flies out the window, women are allowed in the house. The other claims that when money ebbs, so do prospects for women. – Jerry Saltz

In the seventies, a group of American artists seized the means not of production but of reproduction. They tore apart visual culture at a time of no money, no market, and no one paying attention except other artists. Vietnam and Watergate had happened everything in America was being questioned. – Jerry Saltz

Artists working for other artists is all about knowing, learning, unlearning, initiating long-term artistic dialogues, making connections, creating covens, and getting temporary shelter from the storm. – Jerry Saltz

Our culture now wonderfully, alchemically transforms images and history into artistic material. The possibilities seem endless and wide open. – Jerry Saltz

The secret of food lies in memory – of thinking and then knowing what the taste of cinnamon or steak is. – Jerry Saltz

Abstraction brings the world into more complex, variable relations it can extract beauty, alternative topographies, ugliness, and intense actualities from seeming nothingness. – 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. – Jerry Saltz