Wednesday, July 21, 2010

“Twists And Turns”, 2009, watercolor/gouache, 16.5”-14”.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Diego Rivera, Edward G. Robinson and my father Sam Salz in Rivera's San Francisco studio (unknown photographer). The actor Robinson was there to pose for Rivera's "Pan American Unity" mural that he made for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1940 on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. In the mural, he is depicted in a scene from a movie he made then titled "Confessions of a Nazi Spy". For more on the mural here is a link: http://www.riveramural.org/home.asp?language=english
And another link with this photo on a timeline in 1940 made for Diego Rivera:
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/diego-rivera-1940
While my father was in San Francisco at that time (1940), his portrait by Edouard Vuillard was being exhibited at the California Palace of The Legion of Honor. Robinson and his family also had their portraits painted by Vuillard while on the same trip to  Paris with my father (1939).

Sam and Marina Salz on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, in the South of France in the early sixties. Seated at the table from right to left: singer/actor Eddie Fisher, Sam Salz, Marina Salz and singer/songwriter/producer Georgie Jessel ("Toastmaster General of the United States").

Sam Salz in California and the South of France.

During the early 1930's, my father came to know and sell art to some of the great Hollywood stars and directors of that era such as Greta Garbo, Orson Welles,Jack Warner,Billy Wilder. One of these was the actor Edward G. Robinson who originally came from Romania but grew up in New York. He used to act in the Yiddish theatre under his real name Emmanuel Goldenberg. When the movie producers discovered him, they began by typecasting him as a "gangster" or mob figure. His first major film was "Little Ceaser" in which he played one of these kinds of characters. He later went on to play a more select group of roles(a doctor, a painter, etc..). He was an avid collector of art and was one of the first admirers of artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. In 1939, both he and my father made a trip to Paris before the Nazi invasion to have their individual portraits painted by Edouard Vuillard. His association with Diego Rivera did put him in danger of the blacklist during the Joseph McCarthy time but he was not in as much trouble as other actors then. He went on to have a full career and his art collection was one of the best ones in Hollywood with the help of my father. Sam Salz continued his contact with these Hollywood personalities by playing cards with Jack Warner, Billy Wilder and others on the beach in Cannes. Singer Eddie Fisher and songwriter/producer George Jessel would also visit. My parents also had lunch with Kirk Douglas and his wife who also bought art. It was pleasure mixed with business for him since he got them to relax and maybe consider buying one more painting.

Monday, July 5, 2010

“The Subterraneans”,  2007, watercolor/gouache, 15"-14" by Marc Salz. When you scratch the surface of the earth and continue going deeper, who knows what life lives beneath it.
“Black Angels”(for Ornette Coleman) ,2008, watercolor/gouache, 15”-14”. I have had the luck and pleasure to see Ornette perform a few times, possibly five or six. The first was in the early seventies on the lower East Side at “Slugs” a club where trumpeter Lee Morgan was later shot by his girlfriend. The other concerts were more formal some being in colleges or concert halls. His music, traditional jazz or electric, always made me feel uplifted. My kind of music and my kind of visual art. A black angel’s.