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

The reason the art world doesnt respond to Kinkade is because none – not one – of his ideas about subject-matter, surface, color, composition, touch, scale, form, or skill is remotely original. Theyre all cliche and already told. – 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