Old Bottles 
1995
Oil and acrylic on canvas 
 245 x 325 cm

Adapted from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1327842/David-Salle:

"Salle is known for regenerating big, gestural, expressionist painting after years of pared-down minimalism and conceptual art. Salle is known for mixing modes of representation and appropriated ready-made motifs in a single canvas, suggesting but defying any legible narrative. Employing the postmodern technique of pastiche, where the close display of disparate images and styles tends to reduce everything to equivalent signs, Salle’s paintings function as metaphors for the dizzying onslaught of media culture.

Salle grew up in Wichita, Kan., and from 1973 to 1975 attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he studied with John Baldessari (see video below) In 1976 he moved to New York City, where he found work in a publishing house and began to collect images from its archive. His earliest work involved the strategy of overlaying images, and this quickly became his signature style.

Salle’s paintings reflect what is essentially a collage aesthetic, whereby he takes images out of their original context and recontextualizes them into complex ensembles. Like Robert Rauschenberg before him, Salle denies any hierarchy of subject matter by including both “high” and “low” imagery in a single canvas: famous art masterpieces with cartoon figures, high-end designed objects and ornamental motifs with reproductions of newspaper photos, for example. In addition to mixing high and low imagery, Salle also mixes differing styles, including contour line drawings, modeled motifs, found objects, grisaille, crudely rendered images, and highly polished forms."

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, previous Artist Spotlight information, personal reflection, and additional research as needed:

1. Explain how Salle's former career supported the eventual development of  his painting style.
2. Salle says that he doesn't plan his work....how can he get away with that? How does he approach his paintings so that they are still successful, even without planning?
3. Related to question #3 - how is your work process similar to and/or different from Salle's?

Are you curious about John Baldessari? The answer should be YES, so watch this:

Untitled (We don't need another hero)
1987
Photographic silkscreen/vinyl
90" x 117"
Courtesy: Mary Boone Gallery, New York

In your sketchbook, document this Artist Spotlight entry as usual. THEN, as you did for Jaune Quick-to-see-Smith, attach the Scholastic magazine reading/assignment to complete your entry. There will be no additional questions. 

Please keep those notes for reference and review throughout the PLANNING process for your painting/mixed media project. THINK: How you might you use TEXT in your work...what could the addition of TEXT (one word, many words, numbers, etc.) do to clarify your intentions?

​If you are still curious about Barbara Kruger's work, here is some information about the installation at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., which many of you have seen!!!