David Salle: Tree of Life

Published on the occasion of the exhibition David Salle: Tree of Life at Skarstedt, New York, this catalogue includes full plate images, details, installation images, and texts by Sam Lipsyte and Eric Fischl. 

The exhibition presented paintings from his most recent ongoing body of work, the Tree of Life series. In these paintings, Salle creates a Garden of Eden rife with canonical symbolism and moral conflict. The juxtaposed protagonists are drawn from the work of illustrator Peter Arno, whose cartoons exemplified the sophisticated visual style associated with The New Yorker magazine at mid-century. Bisecting the figures is the Tree of Life itself. Varied in style, it is often painted in unnatural, high-key colors. The lower panels serve as visual counterpoints to the action above ground, representing certain art historical "roots," the idea of the subconscious, and the past. Together, they continue David Salle's legacy as a master of postmodern painting known for his deconstruction of images and uncanny compositional instinct.