David Salle tells it like it is... Looking, Talking and Thinking about Art

In his new book 2. 1. 3. to how see, Looking, Talking and Thinking about Art, painter David Salle cuts to the chase in this assembly of his critical essays. Salle has the knack of avoiding bullshit and theoretical cul de sac's. His writing gets directly to the guts of what it's about to make art that works. Great art even.

I particularly liked what he had to say in an essay about artist Dana Schutz: Remember talent? A person who is said to have talent can do something: often it's physical, like throwing a football or playing the cello. Then there is imagination; the difference between it and talent is often misunderstood. Imagination fuels talent and funnels into it, but on its own lacks body. Today talent is easily confused with knowingness or a desire for attention, and what passes for imagination is often nothing more than a reshuffling of cultural signs. That's fashion. Occasionally an artist comes along with both talent and real imagination as well as the ability to combine them - to cast an original idea into pictorial form... as with all effective art, the greatness is partly a matter of the imagination behind it and partly a matter of style.

For more on David Salle you can go to his website HERE. And if you're interested you can go to amazon HERE to get a copy of 2.1.3.