David Salle, an acclaimed New York–based painter, has joined Gladstone Gallery, which has locations in New York, Brussels, and Seoul.
Salle will be represented by Gladstone in the US; Lehmann Maupin and Thaddaeus Ropac will continue to represent him in Asia and Europe, respectively. Yet the Gladstone move will mark a departure from Skarstedt, the blue-chip enterprise that has mounted seven solo shows by Salle in the past decade.
In an email to ARTnews, dealer Per Skarstedt said, “It has been a pleasure to work with David Salle these past ten years. Gladstone and David will be a good fit. Skarstedt will continue to be involved in the secondary market.”
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His defection to Gladstone comes after that gallery staged a show of his work in Brussels last year. A New York exhibition with Gladstone will follow in the fall of next year.
In a statement, dealer Barbara Gladstone said, “We are delighted to formally welcome David to the gallery. I have always admired his work, both as a visual artist and as a writer. His unquestionable skill, wit, inquisitiveness, and psychological depth have helped distinguish him as one of the most unique and compelling painters of his generation. One of my very first coveted art acquisitions was a painting by David that I bought in 1979, a year before I opened my eponymous gallery on 57th Street, so I am very grateful to have this opportunity to work together.”
Salle has frequently been grouped in with the Pictures Generation, a group of artists, many of whom were based in New York, that used appropriation in his work during the late ’70s and early ’80s. For his well-known canvases from that era, Salle layered seemingly unlike images in ways that can variously recall Francis Picabia’s “Transparencies” and James Rosenquist’s Pop paintings.
“Salle’s canvases are like bad parodies of the Freudian unconscious,” critic Janet Malcolm famously remarked. “They are full of images that don’t belong together: a woman taking off her clothes, the Spanish Armada, a kitschy fabric design, an eye.”
Initially, these paintings polarized critics, some of whom labeled Salle’s repeated images of nude women misogynistic. Since then, his paintings have found a loyal following.
In addition to his artistic practice, Salle has written prolifically on painting, with some of his essays appearing in ARTnews.
Salle said in a statement, “Barbara Gladstone and I have been friends for decades and Gladstone has long been a bastion of independence and integrity. I’m very pleased to join the company of many artists I admire most.”
Those artists include Carroll Dunham, Arthur Jafa, Joan Jonas, Alex Katz, Wangechi Mutu, Richard Prince, and Rosemarie Trockel. Gladstone’s roster has expanded rapidly since 2020, when dealer Gavin Brown was brought on as a partner.