David Salle

Published on the occasion of the exhibition David Salle: New Paintings, this catalogue features full plate images and details of work from two recent series: Late Product Paintings and the Silver Paintings. Accompanying the reproductions are studio photographs and an interview between David Salle and writer Bill Powers.

David Salle’s Late Product Paintings are characterized by both immediacy and complexity in their vibrant color and highly energized, dynamic compositions. These works are an extension to Salle’s 1993 series, Early Product Paintings, studying the intangible relationships between subjects. Speaking to Bill Powers in the catalogue’s text, Salle says of his use of collage: “I want the differences to show, but to somehow be resolved anyway. It's symphonic. Sometimes I like to think of myself as a kind of orchestrator.”

In Salle’s Silver Paintings, photographs of the performer Massimo Audiello posing in front of unfinished paintings from the Early Product Paintings series have been transferred to canvas using a variety of non-digital techniques. In each case, the results are unique and unrepeatable, leaving traces of blank canvas that interrupt the image and emphasize the surface of the painting. Salle’s initial interest in photography lies in the medium’s ability to break the subject down into a schema of lights and darks, which can then be translated into paint.