John Salt
Encyclopedia
John Salt is an English
artist, whose obsessively detailed paintings from the late 1960s onwards made him one of the pioneers of the photorealist
school.
Although Salt's work has developed through several distinct phases, it has generally focussed on images of car
s, often shown wrecked or abandoned within a suburban or semi-rural American
landscape, with the banality and dishevelment of the subject matter contrasting with the immaculate and meticulous nature of the work's execution.
district of Birmingham
. His father was a motor repair garage owner, whose stepfather in turn had been a signwriter painting stripes on the bodies of cars. As a young boy Salt was encouraged to draw and paint, and at the age of fifteen he gained admittance to the Birmingham School of Art
, where he studied from 1952 to 1958. From 1958 until 1960 he studied at the Slade School of Art in London
, where he was particularly influenced by the work of the English artist Prunella Clough
and American Pop Art
figures such as Robert Rauschenberg
.
Salt returned to the Midlands to teach at Stourbridge College of Art
and in 1964 was the first artist to exhibit at Birmingham's newly opened Ikon Gallery
, where he had his first one man show in 1965. In 1966 he married and decided to move to the United States
, applying to numerous American art colleges for work before eventually being accepted by Maryland Institute College of Art
in Baltimore
, where he was offered a place in 1967 on a Master of Fine Arts
programme with associated teaching work.
Salt's work at this time showed influences of both abstract expressionism
and Pop Art
- the two pre-eminent artistic movements of the time. Unhappy at the prospect of merely selecting which of a pre-existing set of styles he was to adopt, however, Salt sought a more distinct artistic identity and was encouraged to explore a wide variety of styles and techniques by Grace Hartigan
, who was the head of the graduate programme at Baltimore and a major influence on Salt's early career.
It was at this time that Salt discovered the book Contemporary Photographers towards a Social Landscape, featuring the work of photographers Garry Winogrand
and Lee Friedlander
, in the Baltimore college library. Impressed at how the photographers' documentary style relieved them of the self-conscious need to adopt an artistic technique, Salt photocopied the book with an eye to painting some of its images.
Salt's painting Untitled (1967) was a pivotal work in this respect, being very closely based on Winogrand's photograph New York City (1959); both featuring a closely zoomed image of the inside of a car viewed from the outside. Despite the very high degree of similarity between the compositions, Salt's painting was still clearly an artistic interpretation of the photograph, however. Salt realised that if he was to eliminate all traces of expressionism in his work he had to record the image as faithfully as possible, and his next series of paintings - the first of his mature style - featured a series of paintings of car upholstery reproduced directly from a Buick
catalogue.
Alex Katz
, reviewing Salt's work as an external assessor for the college, skipped over Salt's expressionist work before remarking about the Buick works "Oh this is better. This may not even be art."
Salt had originally planned to return to England at the end of his Baltimore course in 1969, but when two of his Buick works were bought by an influential New York City
art dealer he took Hartigan's advice and moved there instead.
Salt's work in New York moved away from the earlier smooth consumerist
portrayals of car interiors as he started to base his paintings on his own photographs. Initially these featured exterior shots of more worn vehicles, but after his discovery of a scrapyard under Brooklyn Bridge
, his work began to feature images of cars mangled and wrecked to the point of violence.
New York City also saw Salt develop a relationship with the art dealer Ivan Karp, who was on the point of opening his own gallery and was to develop a portfolio of artists associated with the emerging photorealist
movement. Salt had his first one man exhibition in New York in 1969 and in 1972 featured in the documenta 5 exhibition in Kassel
, Germany
where the photorealist school first gained an international profile, since when he has exhibited widely worldwide.
Salt's technique and style developed throughout the early seventies. Under the influence of John Clem Clarke he increasingly used an airbrush
instead of a spray gun, with stencil
s to obtain the detail and precision he sought. His subject matter also broadened to include pick-up truck
s and mobile homes, with the use of his own photography encouraging a deliberately informal snapshot
-like composition.
Salt returned to England in 1978 and settled in Bucknell, Shropshire
. His work in England has largely continued to feature American scenes, however. Salt explained: "I think in a way it [America] has that removed quality I quite like, and also the light is much sharper, you get incredibly clear light, much harder, it's much softer in Britain, it doesn't quite have that edge - edge in every way, in light and subject matter." On another occasion he commented "I've tried desperately to paint British subject matter. It's all so tidy."
During the 1980s Salt moved away from using acrylic paint
s to using water-based casein
, largely for health-based reasons rather than as a question of style. His work also continued to broaden in scope, with an increasing emphasis on the landscape
and context of his subject matter, to the extent that in some later works such as Catskill Cadilac the subject is "not so much sinking into the landscape as being hidden by it".
Salt continues to live and paint in Shropshire.
Salt's pictures generally feature wrecked cars and decrepit mobile homes in semi-rural locations in the United States
. They are produced from photographs by projecting transparencies onto canvas and using an airbrush
and stencil
s to reproduce the colour - a painstaking process that can take up to two years to complete.
The result is that Salt's pictures have an extreme level of detail and precision that lends them a heightened sense of reality and eliminates as far as possible the self-expression of the artist.
Salt's work has been accused of voyeurism
in its impersonal and unforgivingly objective portrayals of impoverished lifestyles, something he has gone some way to acknowledge:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artist, whose obsessively detailed paintings from the late 1960s onwards made him one of the pioneers of the photorealist
Photorealism
Photorealism is the genre of painting based on using the camera and photographs to gather information and then from this information creating a painting that appears photographic...
school.
Although Salt's work has developed through several distinct phases, it has generally focussed on images of car
Čar
Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...
s, often shown wrecked or abandoned within a suburban or semi-rural American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
landscape, with the banality and dishevelment of the subject matter contrasting with the immaculate and meticulous nature of the work's execution.
Early years and education
Salt was born and brought up in the SheldonSheldon, West Midlands
Sheldon is an area of eastern Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It is close to the border with the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull and Birmingham International Airport....
district of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. His father was a motor repair garage owner, whose stepfather in turn had been a signwriter painting stripes on the bodies of cars. As a young boy Salt was encouraged to draw and paint, and at the age of fifteen he gained admittance to the Birmingham School of Art
Birmingham School of Art
The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, its Grade I listed building on...
, where he studied from 1952 to 1958. From 1958 until 1960 he studied at the Slade School of Art in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he was particularly influenced by the work of the English artist Prunella Clough
Prunella Clough
Prunella Clough was a prominent 20th century British artist. "Her subjects are closely observed details and scenes from the landscape...
and American Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
figures such as Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
.
Salt returned to the Midlands to teach at Stourbridge College of Art
Stourbridge College
Stourbridge College is a further education college situated in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England.The main campus, built during the 1970s, is situated south of the town centre on Hagley Road...
and in 1964 was the first artist to exhibit at Birmingham's newly opened Ikon Gallery
Ikon Gallery
The Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.Ikon was set up to...
, where he had his first one man show in 1965. In 1966 he married and decided to move to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, applying to numerous American art colleges for work before eventually being accepted by Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, where he was offered a place in 1967 on a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
programme with associated teaching work.
Baltimore and the move to photo-realism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
and Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
- the two pre-eminent artistic movements of the time. Unhappy at the prospect of merely selecting which of a pre-existing set of styles he was to adopt, however, Salt sought a more distinct artistic identity and was encouraged to explore a wide variety of styles and techniques by Grace Hartigan
Grace Hartigan
Grace Hartigan was an American Abstract Expressionist painter of the New York School in the 1950s.-Biography and early career:...
, who was the head of the graduate programme at Baltimore and a major influence on Salt's early career.
It was at this time that Salt discovered the book Contemporary Photographers towards a Social Landscape, featuring the work of photographers Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand was a street photographer known for his portrayal of America in the mid-20th century. John Szarkowski called him the central photographer of his generation....
and Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 70s, working primarily with 35mm cameras and black and white film, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of the photographs including fragments of...
, in the Baltimore college library. Impressed at how the photographers' documentary style relieved them of the self-conscious need to adopt an artistic technique, Salt photocopied the book with an eye to painting some of its images.
Salt's painting Untitled (1967) was a pivotal work in this respect, being very closely based on Winogrand's photograph New York City (1959); both featuring a closely zoomed image of the inside of a car viewed from the outside. Despite the very high degree of similarity between the compositions, Salt's painting was still clearly an artistic interpretation of the photograph, however. Salt realised that if he was to eliminate all traces of expressionism in his work he had to record the image as faithfully as possible, and his next series of paintings - the first of his mature style - featured a series of paintings of car upholstery reproduced directly from a Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
catalogue.
Alex Katz
Alex Katz
Alex Katz is an American figurative artist associated with the Pop art movement. In particular, he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints and is represented by numerous galleries internationally.-Life and work:...
, reviewing Salt's work as an external assessor for the college, skipped over Salt's expressionist work before remarking about the Buick works "Oh this is better. This may not even be art."
New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
art dealer he took Hartigan's advice and moved there instead.
Salt's work in New York moved away from the earlier smooth consumerist
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
portrayals of car interiors as he started to base his paintings on his own photographs. Initially these featured exterior shots of more worn vehicles, but after his discovery of a scrapyard under Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
, his work began to feature images of cars mangled and wrecked to the point of violence.
New York City also saw Salt develop a relationship with the art dealer Ivan Karp, who was on the point of opening his own gallery and was to develop a portfolio of artists associated with the emerging photorealist
Photorealism
Photorealism is the genre of painting based on using the camera and photographs to gather information and then from this information creating a painting that appears photographic...
movement. Salt had his first one man exhibition in New York in 1969 and in 1972 featured in the documenta 5 exhibition in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
where the photorealist school first gained an international profile, since when he has exhibited widely worldwide.
Salt's technique and style developed throughout the early seventies. Under the influence of John Clem Clarke he increasingly used an airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
instead of a spray gun, with stencil
Stencil
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
s to obtain the detail and precision he sought. His subject matter also broadened to include pick-up truck
Pick-Up Truck
"Pick-Up Truck" is a song written and recorded by Belgian acid house musician Praga Khan. It is the third single from Praga's eighth studio album, Soundscraper....
s and mobile homes, with the use of his own photography encouraging a deliberately informal snapshot
Snapshot (photography)
A snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent. Snapshots are commonly considered to be technically "imperfect" or amateurish—out of focus or poorly framed or composed...
-like composition.
Return to England
Bucknell, Shropshire
Bucknell is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The village lies on the River Redlake, within 600 metres of the River Teme and close to the borders with Wales and Herefordshire...
. His work in England has largely continued to feature American scenes, however. Salt explained: "I think in a way it [America] has that removed quality I quite like, and also the light is much sharper, you get incredibly clear light, much harder, it's much softer in Britain, it doesn't quite have that edge - edge in every way, in light and subject matter." On another occasion he commented "I've tried desperately to paint British subject matter. It's all so tidy."
During the 1980s Salt moved away from using acrylic paint
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
s to using water-based casein
Casein
Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoprotein proteins . These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk....
, largely for health-based reasons rather than as a question of style. His work also continued to broaden in scope, with an increasing emphasis on the landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
and context of his subject matter, to the extent that in some later works such as Catskill Cadilac the subject is "not so much sinking into the landscape as being hidden by it".
Salt continues to live and paint in Shropshire.
Work
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. They are produced from photographs by projecting transparencies onto canvas and using an airbrush
Airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of nebulization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush.-History:...
and stencil
Stencil
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
s to reproduce the colour - a painstaking process that can take up to two years to complete.
The result is that Salt's pictures have an extreme level of detail and precision that lends them a heightened sense of reality and eliminates as far as possible the self-expression of the artist.
Salt's work has been accused of voyeurism
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
in its impersonal and unforgivingly objective portrayals of impoverished lifestyles, something he has gone some way to acknowledge: