Beschreibung:

David Salle Untitled 1986 acrylic and oil on canvas 60 x 42 in. (152.4 x 106.7 cm)
Provenance Mary Boone Gallery, New York Catalogue Essay David Salle’s unique incorporation of art-historical references and ambiguous combinations of original and appropriated imagery have made him one of the most significant American artists to have emerged in the 1980s. Salle’s emotionally complex paintings are achieved through combining disparate elements laden with symbolic meaning into odd and illogical compositions. His large-scale works overwhelm with their inventive colors and dramatic compositions. They invoke an instantaneous and visceral response while remaining conceptually engaging. “In my view, to have value, a work of art has to do many things simultaneously – well it doesn’t have to do anything, really – but let’s say that one idea is that it can both offer a kind of immediate visual drama, and at the same time can unfold slowly over time, its meaning deepening and its complexity ripening, while the immediacy of its visual impact never fades. That is what we as artists strive for.” (Artist interview by Emily Nathan, Artnet, 2011). The present lot depicts one of Salle’s iconic women whose bodily presence invokes the erotic nudity of pornographic material. The female figure here is seen only within context of the painted plane she inhabits. Through the addition of dissociated elements, the protagonist’s overt sexuality becomes subtly sublimated. These surrealist juxtapositions combined with the painting’s eerie palette provide for an alluring, if confounding, narrative. Salle’s female subject refuses to conform to conventional expectations, and instead seduces the viewer into studiously attempting to decipher the meaning of it all. That it still resonates with contemporary experiences confirms the timelessness of Salle’s artistic talent and, specifically, of this enigmatic work of art. Read More