David Salle on the Experience of Art

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the audience for visual art expanded from small circles of artists and collectors into broader culture, the way art was experienced shifted from aesthetics to explanation. Art, it became thought, should be about something. But David Salle rebukes this literal-mindedness: according to him, what we think and feel when reacting to a piece of art is more authoritative than what’s written on the label next to it. A painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, David is also the author of How to See: Looking, Talking, and Thinking about Art, a highly regarded book on artistic criticism.

David joined Tyler to discuss the fifteen (or so) functions of good art, why it’s easier to write about money than art, what’s gone wrong with art criticism today, how to cultivate good taste, the reasons museum curators tend to be risk-averse, the effect of modern artistic training on contemporary art, the evolution of Cézanne, how the centrality of photography is changing fine art, what makes some artists’ retrospectives more compelling than others, the physical challenges of painting on a large scale, how artists view museums differently, how a painting goes wrong, where his paintings end up, what great collectors have in common, how artists collect art differently, why Frank O’Hara was so important to Alex Katz and himself, what he loves about the films of Preston Sturges, why The Sopranos is a model of artistic expression, how we should change intellectual property law for artists, the disappointing puritanism of the avant-garde, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded August 18th, 2021

Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow David on Twitter
Email us: [email protected]
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.6	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:26.7	Hello everyone and welcome back to ConversationsWithT Tyler.
0:30.6	Today I'm honored to be sitting here with David Sally in David's studio out on the
0:35.0	island.
0:36.0	David I would describe really as a force of nature.
0:39.4	He has spent most of his life creating art, often as a painter, but not only.
0:44.2	Also sculpture, film, he directed a movie produced by Martin Scorsese.
0:49.0	David is perhaps best known for his rise to fame in the 1980s, where he heralded the
0:54.3	revival of a certain style of figurative painting.
0:57.8	David is someone who is thought of as being able to work in ballet and theater and virtually
1:02.0	every genre and being able to integrate disparate elements of the artistic craft, figure
1:07.3	out how they work.
1:08.6	He has also written a highly regarded book of artistic criticism, called How To See, is
1:13.9	working on a memoir, has three shows coming up this fall, and you can think of David as
1:19.0	someone who has done virtually everything he has.
1:21.8	In fact, also interviewed Scarlett Johansson.
1:24.8	David, welcome.
1:26.2	Thank you very much, Tyler.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Conversations with Tyler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Conversations with Tyler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.