the salzmines: 2009

Monday, December 28, 2009

"Invisible Cities"(for Italo Calvino), 2001, oil/wood, 24"-22", from the series “Other Languages”. In Calvino’s book “Invisible Cities”, Marco Polo recounts to Kublai Khan descriptions of the various cities he has visited.

"Five Voices”(for Morton Feldman), 2001, oil/wood, 28"-23". Dedicated to minimalist composer Morton Feldman (1926-1987) and his composition “Three Voices”. One voice singing in three parts each coming from a different speaker and direction. This painting is also featured in the Art Gallery section of the Morton Feldman website: https://www.cnvill.net/mfalinks.htm

The “Other Languages” series.

Between 2001 and 2005, I continued my series “Other Languages” where I appropriated the format of the Jewish Talmud. The series is dedicated to all those other languages spoken by immigrants and to immigration in general. The paintings were shown in a solo show at the More Gallery(2004), a two person show at the Old City Jewish Art Center(2008) and a solo show at The Society Hill Synagogue(2012). They were also in group shows at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art(2002) and the Borowsky Gallery(2009).

Monday, December 14, 2009

My father Sam Salz (on the left) and Marc Chagall. This photo was taken while visiting Chagall's home in the South of France in the nineteen sixties.

The Salz family visits Marc Chagall.

In the summer of the early sixties(1962), the Salz family went to visit Marc Chagall and his wife at his home near Saint Paul de Vence in the South Of France. My father had been Chagall's early principal dealer and showed his portraits of rabbis in his gallery in Germany in the thirties. This did get him into trouble with the current Nazi party and the name of Sam Salz was put on their list as a Jew. Two of the paintings my father had at the time were Chagall's " Birthday" and "Over Vitebsk" which he sold and later were bought by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. My father then left for America and began what was to become his art business there. The reunion in 1962 was one of old friends who came from the same type of Eastern European Jewish backgrounds. They both spoke Yiddish but were largely non observant when it came to religion. The photo above is one of the two men coming down from the stairs of Chagall's home while my brother Andre and myself waited below. It was then that my father asked Marc Chagall: "These boys are about to have their Bar Mitzvahs. Is there anything that you can give them?". Chagall then replied with a kiss on each of our foreheads. Blessed to paint.

“Green Piece”, 2004, oil/paper, 13”-15”. This piece and a few of the following paintings on paper were shown in my one person show at the More Gallery in Philadelphia (2005). The show was well reviewed by art critic Edward Sozanski in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

“Modern Primitive”, 2004, oil/paper, 15”-15.5”.

“Side By Side”, 1999(revised 2023), oil/primed paper,

14”-17”. From the “Still(Lives)” series. There is a connection in this series with the still lifes of Giorgio Morandi but I was more interested in the relationships, the distances between shapes. Between a group of people. What seems like an emptiness in between becomes a full presence. At least in art anyway.