Layering Investigation

Layering Investigation

David Salle:

David Salle was born in 1952 and became an American painter, printmaker, and stage designer. Salle and his peers worked to rejuvenate the art of paintings by introducing new and bold techniques, including layering. In the 70's Salle traveled to New York to pursue painting but he knew it was nearly impossible to make a living from art. His art didn't gain public attention until the 80's. His paintings and prints appeared to be randomly layered on top of one another combining to make a poetic work infused with humor and theatricality. Salle's work was categorized as postmodernism because of his ambiguous combinations of original and traditional styles, and his art-historical references. he inverted the familiar into something strange and unrecognizable through details, juxtaposition, and illogical compositions. He leaves viewers to develop meaning from his odd art works.

http://www.davidsallestudio.net/077%20Comedy%201995.jpg

The picture above is David Salle's "Comedy" made in 1995. The piece shows two parallel scenes, on the left a group of business men sit in a room with one woman who appears to be giggling. The man closest to the viewer is also smiling. The right side shows a domestic scene that appears to be on it's side. In the middle of the scene is a picture of a headless mannequin in a flowy, volumous dress. The mannequin is surrounded by butterflies. Below it is a ruffled harlequin collar, a reference to which looks back toward some of his earlier paintings, including "Sextant in Dogtown". Because this painting presents motifs and objects used in earlier work, it stands to continue Salle's ongoing yet ambiguous portrayal of the roles and expectations of women in American society. The woman on the left is a juxtaposed with the domestic scene and the overlying image of the wedding dress on the right, suggesting the impending threat of homogeneity and domestication. Yet the woman's bubbly nature amongst a sea of testosterone, contrasted to the seemingly bliss domestic scene on the right suggests something different. It could either be a communal joke based on sexism, hence the title "comedy". Or it illustrate the idea that she carries the power to destroy preconceived notions about her sex, freeing her from her "womanly" tasks. Salle uses layering in order to contrast different ideas and leave viewers up to analyze the piece for themselves. The layering allows him to contrast these ides and opens up a way to tell a story without using words.

I have found that the way Salle uses the side by side method to compare and contrast in his work to be extremely intriguing for me as a film student. I feel I could use this to show different separations and divides created because of social issues in our society. By using a side by side comparison I could show similarities and differences precisely. His use of flipping images is also attractive to me. I like how he put thendomestic scene on it's side in order to show that that life is not appealing to the younge woman on the other side of the piece. I flip images to evoke skepticism in my viewers and to allow them to question the social issue I'd be covering in that film. 

Research:
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-salle-david.htm

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-salle-david-artworks.htm
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3767