Fan Favorite Replay: Don’t Be a Baby and Keep Making Your Art – Jerry Saltz
Art2Life
Nicholas Wilton
4.8 • 647 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2024
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://Art2Life.com - In this special throwback episode of Art2Life, we revisit one of our most beloved conversations with award-winning art critic Jerry Saltz.
Making art is hard enough, but hearing from others whether it is good or not is especially so. Every artist I know already has, hard-wired within them, a pretty tough critic. I certainly do. So I never have been particularly drawn to listening to more of them. I know, of course, art criticism is essential in the art world. I get all that, but truthfully, I have always been a little leery of outside criticism in case it made me stop making art. It feels safer to hear more from those who are actually making art. They were the ones I thought whose voices mattered. At least for me.
But today you are going to meet an art critic. But not the kind I imagined. Not at all. His name is Jerry Saltz. He is the Pulitzer Prize-winning, senior art critic and columnist for New York Magazine. He has a bajillion followers on Instagram and is a New York Times bestselling author. He also cares a ton about art and especially artists. Which isn’t surprising because he was one. He switched mid-career because, ironically, his inner critic wouldn’t leave him alone, and it all became too much.
Jerry is whip-smart, funny, and at times, daringly truthful. But this is what I love about him: he just tells the truth. Or rather his truth. That is rare these days. Jerry is the artist's art critic. He is so on our side and wants nothing more for us than to simply stay together and above all else, to keep making our art. Join me now for this startlingly vulnerable and caring conversation about art and life with one of the most revered voices in the art world: Jerry Saltz.
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LISTEN IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN…
How Jerry became a bestselling author and why you need to read his books [3:19]
Becoming a different kind of artist and recognizing the respect in art criticism [15:05]
Why artists need one another [25:48]
Making an enemy of envy and why we need to just keep making our art [32:01]
Where Jerry feels the art world is heading [39:15]
Jerry’s advice for artists when they receive criticism and the time Jerry criticized my work [46:47]
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CONNECT WITH JERRY SALTZ
Jerry’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrysaltz/
Riverhead Book’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riverheadbooks
Art is Life (Book): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612485/art-is-life-by-jerry-saltz/
How to Be an Artist (Book): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612484/how-to-be-an-artist-by-jerry-saltz/9780593086469/
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Art to Life podcast. I've done over 125 episodes, and there's one |
| 0:08.7 | that I still get so much feedback on every single week. And so today I wanted to bring that one |
| 0:15.8 | back. It's so valuable and it's so engaging. It's so relevant to what we're all going through right now. |
| 0:21.9 | So I want you to listen in today for a fan favorite replay of episode number 54 with New York |
| 0:29.4 | magazine art critic and author Jerry Salls. Check it out. Even in your bad work, even in my bad work, there is courage because somehow the person who made that thing was able to sustain long enough to make something. |
| 0:48.6 | And the first time you see it, frankly, even bad art is something you've never seen before and you have to have |
| 0:57.0 | all of your screens open. The minute you get defensive about something, you go, ick, I don't like |
| 1:04.8 | abstraction. You're half dead already. |
| 1:13.3 | Making art is hard enough, but hearing from others, whether it is good or not, is especially |
| 1:18.6 | so. Every artist I know already has hardwired within them a pretty tough critic. I certainly |
| 1:25.8 | do, so I never have been particularly drawn to listening |
| 1:28.7 | to more of them. I know, of course, art criticism is essential in the art world. I get all that, |
| 1:35.3 | but truthfully, I've always been a little leery of outside criticism in case it made me stop my |
| 1:41.5 | art making. It feels safer. We hear more from those who are actually |
| 1:45.4 | making art. They were the ones I thought whose voices matter, at least for me. But today you're |
| 1:51.2 | going to meet an art critic, but not the kind I imagine. Not at all. His name is Jerry Salz. He is a Pulitzer |
| 1:58.6 | prize-winning art critic for the New York Magazine. He has a |
| 2:02.2 | bajillion followers on Instagram and is a New York Times best-selling author. He also cares |
| 2:08.0 | a ton about art and especially artists, which isn't surprising because he was one. He switched |
| 2:15.3 | mid-career because, ironically, his inner critic wouldn't leave him |
| 2:19.1 | alone and it all became too much. Jerry is whip smart, funny, and at times so daringly truthful. |
| 2:26.6 | But this is what I love about him. He just tells the truth, or rather his truth. That is rare these days. |
... |
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