Who Is David Salle?
David Salle is an American painter, printmaker, photographer, and stage designer born in 1952 in Norman, Oklahoma. He is known for paintings that layer original and appropriated images on one canvas.
Britannica credits Salle with regenerating big, gestural, expressionist painting after minimalism and conceptual art. Examples of his imagery include Donald Duck and parts of a Caravaggio painting. His surname is pronounced Sally. He lives and works in East Hampton, New York.
What Are the Key Facts About David Salle?
The table below lists 8 widely reported facts about David Salle. The first column names each attribute. The second column gives the reported detail.
| Attribute | Reported Detail |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 28 September 1952 (Galerie Bruno Bischofberger lists 28 November 1952) |
| Age as of 24 September 2026 | 73 years |
| Birthplace | Norman, Oklahoma |
| Hometown | Wichita, Kansas |
| Education | BFA (1973) and MFA (1975), California Institute of the Arts |
| Teacher | John Baldessari |
| Movements | Postmodernism, Neo-expressionism, Pictures Generation |
| Award | Guggenheim Fellowship (1986) |
Where Was David Salle Born and Educated?
David Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He was the only child of Russian Jewish parents. He began taking life-drawing classes at the Wichita Art Association at an early age. During high school, he attended outside art classes three days a week.
Salle studied at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He earned a BFA in three years and an MFA in two. He studied with John Baldessari, whom he credits with showing him a path to his artistry. After graduating, he moved to New York City and worked for Vito Acconci.
What Is David Salle’s Art Style?
Salle’s style layers original and appropriated images in one composition. Wikipedia describes his paintings and prints as multilayered images placed over one another with deliberately illogical techniques. His sources include fashion magazines, cartoons, comics, paperback covers, movies, and television programs.
His process starts with reference photographs, including images of hired models. He then paints the final image. Salle has said he aimed to remove narrative from his work.
Salle is associated with the Pictures Generation. The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of that name, curated by Douglas Eklund, showed his work alongside Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, and Cindy Sherman.
What Are the 7 Key Milestones in David Salle’s Career?
The table below lists 7 milestones in chronological order. The first column gives the year. The second column gives the milestone.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1975 | Graduates from CalArts with an MFA and moves to New York |
| 1979 | Holds his first show in a loft of Larry Gagosian and Annina Nosei on West Broadway |
| 1982 | Shows work at the Venice Biennale, documenta 7, and the Zeitgeist exhibition in Berlin |
| 1986 | Receives a Guggenheim Fellowship for Theater Design |
| 1995 | Directs the feature film Search and Destroy |
| 2016 | Publishes the essay collection How to See with W. W. Norton |
| 2023 | Collaborates with computer scientists on an AI program that generates images in his style |
What Did David Salle Do Beyond Painting?
Salle worked in 3 other fields: stage design, film, and art writing.
How Did David Salle Contribute to Stage Design?
American Ballet Theatre hired Salle to design sets and costumes for choreographer Karole Armitage. He is a longtime collaborator of Armitage and designed sets and costumes for her ballets.
What Film Did David Salle Direct?
Salle directed Search and Destroy in 1995. The film starred Christopher Walken and Griffin Dunne and was produced by Martin Scorsese. It received very negative reactions.
What Has David Salle Written?
Salle has written essays and reviews for Artforum, Art in America, Modern Painters, The Paris Review, and Interview. He was a regular contributor to Town & Country. His 2016 collection How to See discusses how contemporary paintings work. New York Times critic Dwight Garner reviewed it in October 2016.
What Do Critics Say About David Salle’s Work?
Critics have given mixed assessments of Salle’s work. Arthur Danto wrote that the paintings convey purposiveness without a specific purpose. Robert Storr noted a double-exposure and kaleidoscopic effect. Other critics called the image choices arbitrary and the compositions incoherent.
Feminist critics objected to his depiction of women. Britannica notes criticism of the voyeuristic portrayal of women. Mira Schor wrote that his portrayals continue a centuries-old male conversation. Salle and other critics say the sexually explicit images are not particularly erotic because they are faded and blurred.
Where Is David Salle’s Work Held?
According to Wikipedia, Salle’s work is in the permanent collections of 9 museums:
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
- Tate Modern, London
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
His exhibitions have also taken place at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Castello di Rivoli in Torino, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover.
What Are David Salle’s Recent Projects?
Salle painted the Tree of Life series during the 2020 to 2021 COVID-19 pandemic. The series references Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, and New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno. The canvases alternate between black and white and polychrome palettes.
In 2023, Salle worked with computer scientists to build a generative AI program. The program was trained on a dataset of his paintings and refined with his input. Salle described it as useful for imagining variations when brainstorming new paintings.
People Also Ask About David Salle
How Old Is David Salle?
David Salle is 73 years old as of September 2026, based on a 1952 birth year.
How Is the Name Salle Pronounced?
The surname Salle is pronounced Sally.
Where Does David Salle Live?
David Salle lives and works in East Hampton, New York.
Who Is David Salle’s Wife?
Wikipedia lists his spouse as Emily Cole Hunt.
Which Art Movement Is David Salle Associated With?
David Salle is associated with Postmodernism, Neo-expressionism, and the Pictures Generation.
What Does the David Salle Biography Show About His Career?
The David Salle biography shows an American painter born in 1952 who built a career on layered, appropriated imagery. His path ran from CalArts and John Baldessari to a 1979 New York show and the 1982 Venice Biennale. It continued through a 1986 Guggenheim Fellowship, ballet design with Karole Armitage, and the 1995 film Search and Destroy. Later milestones include the 2016 book How to See, the 2020 to 2021 Tree of Life series, and the 2023 AI program trained on his paintings.