David Salle on the Experience of Art | Conversations with Tyler
David Salle asks viewers to trust what they actually experience in front of a painting before replacing that experience with a wall label. He discusses imagination, decorative value, criticism, collecting and the incentives that make museum shows cautious. These notes cover selected opening art-criticism and viewing passages of the official transcript, not the whole conversation. Later legal-policy and other topics are outside this selection. His account of art institutions and artistic quality is an artist's perspective, not a settled consensus. Full official transcript: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/david-salle/ . Topic labels are untimed.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
David Salle asks viewers to trust what they actually experience in front of a painting before replacing that experience with a wall label. He discusses imagination, decorative value, criticism, collecting and the incentives that make museum shows cautious. These notes cover selected opening art-criticism and viewing passages of the official transcript, not the whole conversation. Later legal-policy and other topics are outside this selection. His account of art institutions and artistic quality is an artist's perspective, not a settled consensus. Full official transcript: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/david-salle/ . Topic labels are untimed.
Key Takeaways
Art need not reduce to a literal message
Salle worries that asking only what art is 'about' can cut short the experience of it. Metaphor, invention and imagination may do things that a concise explanation cannot. His alternative is to leave room for what looking at the work makes possible rather than treat it as an illustrated statement.