{"id":502,"date":"2003-06-25T05:32:00","date_gmt":"2003-06-25T05:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newyorkarttours.com\/blog\/?p=502"},"modified":"2008-10-31T05:36:40","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T05:36:40","slug":"seeing-out-loud-jerry-salz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newyorkarttours.com\/blog\/2003\/06\/25\/seeing-out-loud-jerry-salz\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Out Loud: Jerry Salz"},"content":{"rendered":"

For ‘Flash Art’ magazine
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nIn nearly five years as art critic for the Village Voice, Jerry Saltz has written over 200 essays on art exhibited in New York. A selection of these appears in \u2018Seeing Out Loud,\u2019 a book that Saltz calls a \u2018core sample\u2019 of art seen in the city. Whether he is musing on the state of the art world or examining exhibitions by artists as diverse as Kai Althoff and Norman Rockwell, Saltz never shies away from making his opinions known.<\/p>\n

MK- How did you determine the book\u2019s contents?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

JS \u2013I kept most of the one-person reviews, a few of the two persons, and most of the museums. Like a lot of people who make things, I hope I\u2019m getting better not worse, so I put the more recent reviews first. My deepest fantasy is that my work could be like desert island reading, where you could dip in and out over and over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MK \u2013 Your writing is self-aware. Do you think that\u2019s an important part of what criticism should be?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

JS \u2013 I want subjectivity, subjectivity, more subjectivity. I think that\u2019s all there really is. There is no one rule that says \u2018Rubins is great\u2019 or \u2018Rubins is not great.\u2019 I think it\u2019s all a matter of taste. I write what I think, but I hope that plugs into a bigger, shared feeling so it\u2019s not just some cockamamie nut, running around going, \u201cOh I like this; I hate that.\u201d To me an ideal review has an opinion in every sentence \u2013 some temperature. I hate it when I don\u2019t know what a critic thinks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MK \u2013 Are you unusual in that respect as a critic?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

JS \u2013 It\u2019s strange. Only in the art world do people say, \u201cWhy write about things if you don\u2019t like them?\u201d You would never say that to a restaurant critic or to a sports writer, \u201cWrite about the Mets, but only say they\u2019re good.\u201d I think critics let everyone down, especially artists, when they don\u2019t share a strong opinion one way or the other. Frankly, that\u2019s the situation we\u2019re in, and I think that has to stop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MK \u2013 You\u2019ve written that the critic has no power. Can you explain?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

JS \u2013 I don\u2019t say this to be a provocateur, but art critics don\u2019t have true power. Theater critics have power; they close shows. Art critics can\u2019t do that (Although I sometimes wish we could). If something I write curtails a sale, I\u2019d like to think that those collectors shouldn\u2019t be buying that work anyway. If a dealer backs off you because of what I write, then something\u2019s really wrong with the dealer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MK \u2013 Do you need an eye to be a critic?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

JS \u2013 Everyone has an eye, and everyone, I suppose, has a voice, so anyone can be a critic. But only a few people can be good critics. For that I think you do need a good eye. But you also have to write clear, entertaining, jargon free prose; you should never take anything for granted, talk down to the reader, or think you understand everything you see. Art is about experience, not understanding. In a sense, it is beyond words. Of course, that hasn\u2019t stopped me from trying to put what I see into words.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For ‘Flash Art’ magazine In nearly five years as art critic for the Village Voice, Jerry Saltz has written over 200 essays on art exhibited in New York. A selection of these appears in \u2018Seeing Out Loud,\u2019 a book that Saltz calls a \u2018core sample\u2019 of art seen in the city. Whether he is musing … <\/p>\n

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