Quotes by

Jerry Saltz

Everyone goes to the same exhibitions and the same parties, stays in the same handful of hotels, eats at the same no-star restaurants, and has almost the same opinions. I adore the art world, but this is copycat behavior in a sphere that prides itself on independent thinking. – Jerry Saltz

Summer is a great time to visit art museums, which offer the refreshing rinse of swimming pools – only instead of cool water, you immerse yourself in art. – Jerry Saltz

Megacollectors suppose they can enter art history by spending astronomical amounts. – Jerry Saltz

The art gods cooked up something special for James Ensor. – Jerry Saltz

All art comes from other art, and all immigrants come from other places. – Jerry Saltz

When art wins, everyone wins. – Jerry Saltz

I have a soft spot for art that, in terms of subject matter and material, is in bad taste. – Jerry Saltz

Art is changing. Again. Here. Now. Opportunities to witness this are rare, so attend and observe. – Jerry Saltz

Art is good, bad, boring, ugly, useful to us or not. – Jerry Saltz

Recessions are hard on people, but they are not hard on art. – Jerry Saltz

The art world is molting – some would say melting. Galleries are closing museums are scaling back. – Jerry Saltz

Almost all institutions own a lot more art than they can ever show, much of it revealing for its timeliness, genius, or sheer weirdness. – Jerry Saltz

The forties, seventies, and the nineties, when money was scarce, were great periods, when the art world retracted but it was also reborn. – Jerry Saltz

Robert Rauschenberg was not a giant of American art he was the giant. No American created so many aesthetic openings for so many artists. – Jerry Saltz

To engage with art, we have to be willing to be wrong, venture outside our psychic comfort zones, suspend disbelief, and remember that art explores and alters consciousness simultaneously. – Jerry Saltz

The style of ancient Egyptian art is transcendently clear, something 8-year-olds can recognize in an instant. Its consistency and codification is one of the most epic visual journeys in all art, one that lasts 30 dynasties spread over 3,000 years. – Jerry Saltz

First let me report that the art in the Barnes Collection has never looked better. My trips to the old Barnes were always amazing, but except on the sunniest days, you could barely see the art. The building always felt pushed beyond its capacity. – Jerry Saltz

Probably only an art-worlder like me could assign deeper meaning to something as simple and silly as Tebowing. But, to us, anytime people repeat a stance or a little dance, alone or together, we see that it can mean something. Imagistic and unspoken language is our thing. – Jerry Saltz

Elizabeth Peyton, the artist known for tiny, dazzling portraits of radiant youth, is now painting tiny, dazzling portraits of radiant middle age. – Jerry Saltz