Layering-David Salle

David Salle is a painter who began his art career as a nine-year-old who took life drawing classes at a local organization. These classes would spark Salle’s interest in drawing and painting. Once Salle graduated high school, he attended the California Institute of Arts where he shadowed under the artist John Baldessari who sparked a passion for abstract art and helped Salle feel free when making art. Once Salle graduated, he moved to New York and began to pick up tiny jobs to support himself as well as shadow under other artists. One job was making pin-ups for a magazine company that later shut down and left Salle with photos that will inspire and be in his future works. Eventually, Salle began working in theater. He would make costumes and set the stage for works like The Birth of the Poet. Afterwards, Salle began to explore other art forms like photography and film which would eventually be displayed in museums. Finally, in 2004 Salle began to explore collaging which transformed into his current art style.

David Salle’s art focuses on three main things: form, shape, and color. Salle’s art is similar to a collage but includes many different forms of art like painting, printmaking, and photography. Salle also likes to mix realistic drawings and photos with more cartoonish photos and includes different styles to it like contour line drawings. Salle’s art also has many different shapes and objects to it. Salle likes to take objects and bring it out of context into his art and in his art, it is obvious that nothing really goes together. Lastly, Salle depicts different moods in his art with the use of various colors
Some of Salle's Works:
   

Of these paintings, I really like the one with the pie and bed. I like the bright colors used as it catches my eye. I also like the various shapes used in it like the triangular pie slice and the rectangular bed. Also, I like the painting with the car and the girl. I like the unity in the colors and the subjects in the painting do make some sense together which I prefer over the other paintings where the objects relate in no way. I also like how the objects are in various angles and it kind of makes me think of a summer day with the ice cream and the bright colors. Lastly, I like the painting with the snowman. Unlike the other paintings, I get a different feeling when looking at this painting. I feel the good majority of black and white makes me think of a memory and I would to try this out in my art as well. When it comes to Salle’s work, I personally like the colors. The colors are bright and appealing to the eye. I also like the layering in Salle’s art, but I do not like how Salle combines various objects that don’t make sense together. If I were to use layering in my art, I would definitely have them relate in some way. Along with this, I like how Salle combines various forms of art and layers it on top of one another. I personally like the photos he includes with the paint. The juxtaposition between the black and white photos and the bright and colorful paintings is very nice and really emphasizes how none of the things in the paintings relate.

In conclusion, I have learned that layering is a collage where one puts images on top of one another, but could also include various forms of art like paintings and videos and contemporary artists use layering to convey multiple moods in one piece or to tell a story. I think I will use layering to layer photos into my art and possibly animate those photos as well. In my investigation, I was specifically interested in Salle's use of different forms of art. It makes me want to explore with my art in a similar fashion like possibly drawing or painting something and scanning and using it in my art.


Sources:
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-salle-david-life-and-legacy.htm
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/david-salle
http://www.artnews.com/2015/02/23/structure-rising-forever-now-at-moma/