Dissecting the Collage: An Interview with David Salle
Walking down Hong Kong’s Pedder Building’s fourth floor hallway toward Lehmann Maupin, I can already glimpse the bold colors and varied techniques that make up the David Salle’s paintings. It’s the preview of Salle’s solo exhibition and he is due to present a talk on his works, which in this exhibition ranges from his signature large-scale compositions to smaller canvases, the latter of which represents his most recent creative evolution.
Lauded as a leading figure in the development of American postmodern sensibility, the New York-based artist is best known for his collage-like work in which he combines traditional painting techniques with vibrantly colored pop culture imagery. The works speak for themselves, figuratively and literally—across these surfaces float snowmen, bowls of mysterious green liquid and even subjects as mundane as waffles. Although these enlarged and hyper-detailed motifs dominate the space at Lehmann Maupin, at once bringing up sensations nostalgic and unsettling, there is also something cryptic about their arrangements. Their creator is similarly elusive; while Salle spoke eloquently about broader dialogues on contemporary art during his artist talk, he revealed little about the conception of this new show.
The next day, I sat down with Salle at the gallery to discuss narrative theory, his move to New York from Wichita, Kansas, his oeuvre and the creative process that produces these paintings.
