Jerry Saltz is a New York-based, award-winning art critic. This book is a collection of pieces he’s written covering the period from 1999-2021 and is divided into time periods reflecting geopolitical events. The first section, ‘The World Before and During: 1999-2001’ is indicative of Saltz’s approach. It deals with art around the time of the Twin Towers terrorist attack. Saltz doesn’t look at art in isolation – it lives in the context of its time, and Saltz explores what he sees in relation to that. This is far more than just a book on aesthetic appreciation.
Saltz has an acute sense of irony. Critics are often stereotyped as failed artists, so Saltz’s second piece, ‘My Life as a Failed Artist’ addresses that with candid humour. He’s also bemused by ego. Artists have it; museum and gallery curators have more of it; but the cup of art buyers’ egos runneth over. Buyers appear to need the publicity of spending money in front of others. As he says, ‘For nearly 10 years, starting in the late ’90s, art and money had sex in public. Lots of it.’
Museums and galleries are also in Saltz’s sights. The Whitney Museum of American Art failed to follow through with erecting a sculpture because of ‘America’s hysteria and mania around race’. Saltz’s seminal piece, ‘The Whitney Rejected This Masterpiece Sculpture’ crystallises his perception, wit and unflinching willingness to call out artistic cowardice when he sees it.
Saltz’s pieces argue that art mirrors our experience – trying to make sense of the illogicality of existence while keeping a foot in the world itself with its petty and profound machinations, both political and economic. Wonderfully witty and erudite writing.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
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