the salzmines

2012-02-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

"Ping", 1994-97, oil/wood/ping pong ball, 14"-15" by Marc Salz. We in America play games like football, baseball and basketball while the Chinese play ping pong. Different games, different balls, different sizes.

2012-02-22T15:05:00.000-08:00

"Pong", 1994-97, oil/wood/ping pong ball, 12.5"-12.5".

2012-02-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

My father Sam Salz and Marc Chagall in the early sixties at Chagall's home in the South of France. My father had a gallery In Cologne, Germany in the twenties where he showed and sold Chagall's paintings. One of the them was titled "Birthday" which is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For more on my father and Marc Chagall, you may go to posts made on March 22, 2011 and December 14, 2009.

2012-02-22T07:26:00.001-08:00

"Birthday"by Marc Chagall. Here is a link to the painting from the provenance department at MoMA: http://www.moma.org/collection/provenance/provenance_object.php?object_id=79360
My father also had Chagall's "Over Vitebsk" which is now also in the Museum: http://www.moma.org/collection/provenance/provenance_object.php?object_id=79370

2012-02-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

"Deluge"(sixteen), "Emergence", 2011 by Marc Salz, oil/gessoed ragboard, 21"-17". From the "Deluge" series. A deluge can be environmental, biblical or personal. In a deluge, all the small details are overwhelmed by water(color).

2012-02-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

"Deluge"(eighteen), "Star Gazers", 2011, oil/gessoed ragboard, 21"-17".

2012-02-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

"Deluge"(fifteen), 2011, watercolor/gouache, 17.5"-14".

2012-02-19T08:30:00.001-08:00

"Deluge"(twelve), "The Storm", 2011, oil/gessoed ragboard, 20"-17".

2012-02-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

A section of the studio wall of Marc Salz. I have had this studio since 1976. I call this wall "The Wall of Fame". It features photos of paintings, composers,musicians, actors and comedians. Some of them are: Giulietta Massina, Cezanne, Thelonious Monk, El Greco, Samuel Beckett(obituary), Moondog, Jack Benny, a Fayoum portrait, the planet Saturn, "The Honeymooners", Matisse, Buster Keaton, Bob Dylan,Morandi, Morton Feldman, Charlie Chaplin, Malevitch, John Waters, Fra Angelico, Monet's palette, Anton Webern, Captain Beefheart, a baby shoe, and a toy blue rhinoceros.

2012-02-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

"Golden Game", 2002(revised 2007), oil/baltic birch, 25"-19". From the "Talmudic Abstraction" series by Marc Salz. This painting was included in the show "Painting Midrash: Abstract art in response to sacred Jewish texts" at the Borowsky Gallery in Philadelphia(2009). It is dedicated to all the alchemists who used the Kabbalah as their source.

2012-02-05T14:00:00.001-08:00

"Stars and Clouds", 2001, oil/baltic birch, 15"-16" by Marc Salz. Between 1987 and 1997, I had done a series of paintings based on the triptych format of 14th and 15th century Sienese triptychs. Between 2001 and 2005, I decided to do a series appropriating the format of the Jewish Talmud with its central text surrounded by the commentaries of rabbis and scholars. My grandfather Moshe Sofer died in the Holocaust and was both a Torah scribe and an astronomer. My Talmudic Abstraction series is dedicated to his memory and to my two aunts who also died with him.

2012-02-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

"Bathers", 2005, oil/baltic birch, 22"-15". From the "Talmudic Abstraction" series. More of this series may be seen on the rest of "The Salzmines".

2012-01-29T18:45:00.001-08:00

"Interlude", 2009, oil/baltic birch, 19"-19". From a series of shaped paintings by Marc Salz.
My shaped pieces are not only dealing with the sculpture/painting dialogue but are more about the object/subject contradiction that goes back and forth from subject to object. Where does one end and the other begin?

2012-01-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

"Sax Play"(for Sonny Rollins), 2008, oil/baltic birch, 12"-20". Dedicated to jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

2012-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

"Ups and Downs", 2007, oil/baltic birch, 17"-17".

2012-01-29T08:36:00.001-08:00

"Pinky", 2008, oil/baltic birch, 14"-19".

2012-01-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

"Tickle", 2008, oil/baltic birch, 18"-21".

2012-01-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

"Busy Bodies", 2007, oil/baltic birch, 14"-18".

2012-01-27T07:20:00.001-08:00

My mother Marina Salz in her peacock costume when she danced in Radio City Music Hall, New York, in 1941 under the stage name of Marina Lord. The costume consisted of 827 rare Australian feathers and was 11 ft high and 14 ft wide. It was also equipped in the back with a motor that activated the moving feathers when bending forward. This photo was taken in the studios of "Bruno of Hollywood" in New York. Another photo by Weegee and more explanations can be found in an older post, June 27, 2010. Here are also two links to articles by New York dance critic Tobi Tobias on the Weegee photo:
http://www.artsjournal.com/tobias/2006/06/weegees_ballerina.html and this coda where I am interviewed about my mother's life as a dancer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo : http://www.artsjournal.com/tobias/2007/04/coda.html

2012-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

"Chamber Music" by Marc Salz, 1988, oil/wood, 22"-22". This painting was on my card for the show at the Dolan Maxwell Gallery in 1989. It was also taken to the Chicago International Art Exposition by the gallery the same year. From 1987 to 1997, I painted this series of triptychs based on the format of 14th and 15th century Sienese triptychs. I was also thinking of Duccio and Cimabue as well as Russian icon painters (Andrei Rublev etc.). These artists had an archaic weight in the physical immediacy of their work coupled with an illusion to a lighter spirituality. I was also listening to the modern sacred music of Arvo Part and Igor Stravinsky when I did this series.

2012-01-25T16:59:00.000-08:00

"Testimony"(for Dimitri Shostakovich), 1987, oil/wood, 21"-23". The title is from the book on Shostakovich by Solomon Volkov which I was reading at that time. The painting was shown at the Chicago International Art Exposition at the Navy Pier 1989(Dolan Maxwell Gallery) and reproduced in the catalogue for that art fair.

2012-01-25T15:15:00.001-08:00

"Terminal", 1989, oil/wood, 22"-26". For more paintings from the same triptych series you may go to posts made on May 28,2011, September 5, 2010 and July 2, 2008.

2012-01-17T19:20:00.001-08:00

"Annunciatiom", Fra Angelico, fresco in the convent of San Marco, Florence. Over my painting years this piece has had a great effect on me. The two paintings below from 2009 and 1999 are examples. The theme of two figures and the space, distance, between them is not only spiritual but about general life relationships. The light that eminates in between is one of great moments in art.

2012-01-17T19:17:00.001-08:00

"Chosen Paths", 2009, by Marc Salz, oil/baltic birch, 24"-25".

2012-01-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

"Walk Don't Run", 1999, oil/baltic birch, 17"-20". This painting was shown in 2011 at Diana Levine Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts.

2012-01-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

"Friendly Galaxies", 2009, by Marc Salz, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 20"-17". A painting dedicated to jazz composer and musician Sun Ra.

2012-01-17T10:04:00.001-08:00

Distant Points", 2009, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 18"-16".

2012-01-17T10:01:00.001-08:00

"Deluge"(six), 2010, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 21.5",17".

2012-01-17T07:49:00.000-08:00

"Underworlds", 2009, oil/ragboard, 19"-15".

2012-01-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

"Playtime", 2009(revised 2011) by Marc Salz, oil/gessoed ragboard, 18"-16". Dedicated to filmmaker Jacques Tati and his movie "Playtime". For more on Tati and this movie, you may go to the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV5CdseAZ3M or the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3SIkso0QQ&feature=share .

2011-12-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

"Naboo", 2011, oil/baltic birch, 24"-28" by Marc Salz. I got the title from watching the "Star Wars" movie series with my grandson Sammy. The planet Naboo intrigued me. It was a planet where art and architecture were highly regarded. This painting and the following three were part of eight of my paintings featured in a group show titled "REAL ABSTRACT" at the Hopkins House Gallery of Contemporary Art in Haddon Township, New Jersey (May 21-June 25, 2011).

2011-12-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

"Space Walking", 2010, oil/baltic birch, 24"-28".

2011-12-23T07:58:00.001-08:00

"Pipe Dreams", 2010, oil/baltic birch, 18"-28".

2011-12-23T07:56:00.001-08:00

"Swamp Thing", 2010, oil/baltic birch, 18"-27.5". More of these shaped paintings can be seen by going to my post made on October 8, 2010.

2011-12-19T14:45:00.001-08:00

"Deluge"(twenty), "Red Wave", 2011, oil/gessoed ragboard, 21"-17" by Marc Salz.

2011-12-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

"Deluge"(nineteen),"Swept Away", 2011, oil/gessoed ragboard, 17"-19.5".

2011-12-17T10:05:00.001-08:00

My mother, stage name Marina Franca, being waited on in the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo production of "Gaite Parisienne".

2011-12-10T10:26:00.001-08:00

"Star Child" byMarc Salz, 2002, oil on baltic birch,18"-15". From the "Talmudic abstractions" series. This painting is dedicated to Shimon bar Kochba (trans."son of a star") who lead the third revolt against the Romans in the province of Judaea (132-136) . He was thought to be a Messiah but later was discovered as a fake. The Jews who followed him instead of Jesus went on to constitute the beginnings of the diaspora.

2011-11-28T19:58:00.001-08:00

                        "Serenade", 2006,
                         oil/baltic birch, 16"-20".
                         A shaped painting by Marc Salz.
                         This painting started out as a variation
                         of my"Talmudic Abstractions"(Jewish)
                         but ended up with Islamic patterning.

2011-11-18T08:01:00.001-08:00

                       "Cabinet"(for Vuillard), 2002,
                         by Marc Salz,
                        oil/baltic birch, 15"-11".
                         For painter Edouard Vuillard.
                         My father Sam Salz was Vuillard's
                        principal American dealer.

2011-11-18T07:58:00.001-08:00

             "Private Garden"(for Mompou), 2005,
              oil/baltic birch, 13"-16".
              For the Catalan composer
             and pianist
             Federico Mompou.

2011-11-18T07:48:00.001-08:00

                 "Castle"(for "K"). 2003, oil/baltic birch.
                   19"-17".
                  This painting is for Franz Kafka
                   and Paul Klee, the two "K"s.

                  Klee's paintings contain arrows that lead to
                   no specific direction
                   for those wandering characters
                   in Kafka's novels.

2011-11-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

The painting wall of Marc Salz's studio.
A studio rented since 1976.

2011-11-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

Painting wall in the studio
(without painting).

2011-10-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

"Tract", 2008, oil/baltic birch, 16"-17".
From a series of shaped paintings by Marc Salz.

2011-10-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

"Gong"(for Anton Webern), 2008, oil/baltic birch, 18"-16".
Dedicated to twelve tone composer Anton Webern.

2011-10-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

"Red Hot", 2009, oil/baltic birch, 16"-16".

2011-10-11T07:03:00.001-07:00

"Deluge"(ten), 2011,
oil/gessoed ragboard, 19.5"-17".

2011-10-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

"Deluge"(seventeen), "Planet Waves", 2011,
oil/ gessoed ragboard, 21"-17".

2011-10-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(two), 2010,
watercolor/gouache, 17"-14".

2011-10-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

   "Andre's Flower", 2011,
    by Andre Salz (Andre Eric Salz),
   oil/canvas, 12"-14". More of my brother's
    paintings can be seen on posts 12/29/07
   and 11/23/07.

Sam Salz and Erich Maria Remarque.

2011-10-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

The photo above is of one of my father's best friends: writer Erich Maria Remarque ("All Quiet On the Western Front", "Three Comrades"). Around 1942 when Remarque was in New York, he would visit my father (Sam Salz) many times at my father's apartment at the Ambassador Hotel where they would have long discussions on art. The writer was also a collector of Impressionist paintings and would buy several works from him (Cezanne, Degas and others). Along with Marlene Dietrich, they would all play cards at the Ambassador while World War Two raged on and Hitler marched through one country after another. The film director Billy Wilder("Some Like It Hot") was also an expatriot who would stop by and buy art as well. Later my father would visit Remarque and his wife the actress Paulette Goddard when he was near his home in the town of Porto Ronco, Switzerland. As a result of their friendship, my brother Andre was given the middle name of "Eric". Here is a link to the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Center in Osnabruck, Germany: http://www.remarque.uos.de/internet.htm

2011-08-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

"Bruegelland", 1999 (revised 2005),oil/wood, 21"-21" by Marc Salz. This is dedicated to Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder(1525-1569) who painted "Children's Games".

2011-08-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

"Clown Time"(for James Ensor), 2007, oil/baltic birch, 14"-18". This painting can also be seen on my post made June 13, 2010 along with Ensor's paintings of clowns and masks.

2011-08-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

"Boo Boo", 2004, oil/baltic birch, 23"-24". A painting named after the son of the great jazz musician and composer Thelonius Monk. Monk also wrote the tune "Boo Boo's Birthday". At the time I painted this, I was assembling toys for our own grandson Sammy. It could also be titled: "Joan Miro visits Elmo's World".

2011-07-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

My mother Marina Salz (Marina Franca) doing the can can in a publicity photo for the Ballet Russe production of Gaite Parisienne(1939).

2011-05-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

"Penumbra", 1995, oil/wood, 24"-32" by Marc Salz. This painting and the painting below ("Dimitri's Dream") were both in a solo show in Millersville University in 1996 curated by John Markowitz. The photos are by Will Brown.

2011-05-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

"Dimitri's Dream", 1995, Oil/wood, 25"-33". The "Dimitri" in the titled refers to composer Dimitri Shostakovich. I was also looking at the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and their use of the elements earth, water, fire and air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25LlcZDHhXg
For more triptychs from the series, please go to posts made on September 5, 2010 and on July 2, 2008.

2011-04-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

"The Ages", 2001, oil/Baltic birch, 27"-23". From a series of paintings by Marc Salz based on the format of the Jewish Talmud with it's central text (Torah) and commentaries by rabbis and scholars. I believe that the format of the Talmud is not only important for Jewish people but can also be seen as a symbol for world peace with the central text being the survival of the world and the side arguments being the different countries. Each U.N. member should wear a small pin with a central rectangle(the world) and side rectangles (countries) on their lapels to remind them about why they are there.

2011-04-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

"Moment by Moment", 2002, oil/Baltic birch, 30"-23". From the "Talmudic Abstractions" series. For more paintings from the series, please go to earlier posts made from 2008 through 2011.

2011-03-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(eleven), 2010, oil/gessoed ragboard, 20'-17".

2011-03-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(thirteen), 2011, watercolor/gouache, 17.5"-14".

Sam Salz, Marc Chagall's dealer.

2011-03-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

"The Art Dealer Sam Salz"("Kunsthandler"), a photo by August Sander from his series on professions during the 1920s Weimar period in Germany. This photo was taken of my father in front of his gallery in Cologne where he sold Chagall, Arp and Braque. Two Chagalls he sold, "Birthday" and "Over Vitebsk", eventually were bought by the Museum of Modern Art in New York where they are still in the collection. The then mayor and later chancelor Konrad Adenauer attended one of the gallery's openings. For showing and selling modern art, my father got on the list of the rising Nazi party. He then left for Paris. Here is a link to "Birthday" on the MoMA website: http://www.moma.org/collection/provenance/provenance_object.php?object_id=79360

2011-03-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

"The Asparagus", by Edouard Manet, Musee D'Orsay, 16.5"-21.5", oil on canvas, gift of Sam Salz. My father was a poor painter in Paris before he had a gallery in Germany and later became a famous art dealer in America. He was in awe of the paintings in the Louvre then and did not forget that later on when he had this Manet which was hanging in his bedroom. I used to laugh at it's simplicity when I was a child. His response was:"Don't laugh! It's a masterpiece!". He gave the painting to the Musee D'Orsay in 1959. Here is a link to the painting on the Musee D'Orsay's website:

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting.html?no_cache=1&zoom=1&tx_damzoom_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=99996

Two portraits of Sam Salz by Ensor and Vuillard.

2011-03-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

"Portrait of Sam Salz", by James Ensor, 1929, opaque watercolor on paper, 10"-12", the Philadelphia Museum of Art. James Ensor was a Belgian painter who's paintings were sometimes of masks and sculls. They were often deliberate political commentaries and many times disturbing in their black humor. My father Sam Salz was one of Ensor's dealers and a good friend who set up some of his later still lifes with sea shells. Above is a portrait by Ensor which is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art which owns paintings that were once in the collections of Louis Stern and Henry McIlhenny who both bought from Sam Salz. Ensor dedicated it to him: "For Salz, the ace of art past, present and future".

2011-03-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

"Portrait of Sam Salz" by Edouard Vuillard, 1939, pastel and gouache, 20"-13.5". From a now out of print Abrams edition on Vuillard. Sam Salz was Vuillard's principal American dealer. He also knew and sold the paintings of Pierre Bonnard whom he visited at his studio in Le Cannet in the South of France. My father left Paris for America in the early thirties but returned to it in 1937. In 1939 he introduced Vuillard to the actor Edward G. Robinson. Both he and Robinson then had their portraits painted at different locations. My father's portrait was done in Vuillard's studio. He gave Vuillard an art book which is on the table to the right. This was in contrast to the Robinson family portrait done at the Plaza Athenee Hotel. My father first introduced Vuillard to Robinson as "A famous movie actor from America". Vuillard did not recognize him and added "I never go to the movies". Soon after, Hitler and the Nazis marched into Paris. Vuillard was stuck but my father and Robinson along with his wife and son made it out on time with their portraits. My father's father Moshe Salz and his two sisters were not so lucky. They were shot by the Nazis near their town of Radomysl, Poland in 1941. This painting is posted in commemoration of the thirty year anniversary of Sam Salz's death on March 22, 1981. My parents Sam and Marina Salz also donated a Vuillard painting ("Dinnertime") to the Museum of Modern Art in 1961. Here is a link to the painting: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A6194&page_number=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1

2011-01-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

"Beginnings", 2004, oil/wood, 20"-13" by Marc Salz. Part of the "Talmudic Abstractions" series. This painting was reproduced in a review by the Philadelphia Inquirer for my 2004 one person show at the More Gallery.

2011-01-15T07:19:00.000-08:00

"Ocean"(for Tom Waits), 2003, oil/wood, 21"-22" from the "Talmudic Abstractions" series.

2010-12-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

"Red Sea", 2008, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 15"-16" by Marc Salz, from the "Genetic Moments" series. This series has many paintings with eyes looking in all directions, up, down and sideways. They could be seen as being "human minimalism" or better said, "HU-minimalism" or "HUE-minimalism". I was also interested in where the eyes were pointing as in Spanish religious paintings (El Greco, Zurbaran) and in the almost cartoony way they were painted. They look up towards heaven, down towards earth and sideways at each other.

2010-12-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

"Green Sea"(for Andrei Tarkovsky), 2008, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 17"-18". Here is a link to a scene from the Tarkovsky movie "Solaris" where water plays a big role: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOS5SDumayA&feature=related .

2010-12-27T13:25:00.000-08:00

"Red Rivers", 2009, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 19"-15".

2010-12-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

"Incantations", 2007, oil/ gessoed ragboard, 17"-16".

Sam Salz and Dr.Albert Barnes.

2010-12-27T12:12:00.000-08:00

My father's(Sam Salz) early first major collector was Dr.Albert Barnes who's collection of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists became the well known Barnes Foundation in Merion,Pa. that will soon move near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My father made two of his first sales to Barnes. One was a large Renoir group portrait titled "Mussel-fishers at Berneval"(1879). The other was a Cezanne still life. Sam Salz had met Dr.Barnes indirectly through Soutine and his dealer Zborovsky. Barnes had bought many Soutines and featured his paintings as part of his collection at the Foundation's home in Merion. After the sale, my father introduced Dr.Barnes to the famous Impressionist dealer Ambroise Vollard. In his early days as an art dealer, Vollard would give my father paintings to sell as a way of teaching him the trade. Later Barnes decided to invite Vollard to view his collection when he came to America. According to my father's story, when Vollard entered the main room of the Foundation, he immediately saw a room filled with great masterpieces (Matisse, Cezanne, Seurat etc...). Upon entering the room, Vollard stepped down one of the steps and accidently fell on the floor. Somewhat shaken by the experience, the dealer rose to his feet as Barnes exclaimed: "Just think, you could have died in the company of these great masterpieces". Vollard responded: "This man is crazy!" and he ran out of the room.

2010-12-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

"Wiggle", 2008-10, oil/wood, 14"-21".

2010-12-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

"Planetarium", 2010, oil/wood, 21"-21".

2010-12-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

"Walk, Don't Run", 1999, oil/wood, 17"-20". Part of the "Narrative Abstraction" series by Marc Salz, this shaped painting has elements taken from "The Annunciation" by Fra Angelico.

2010-12-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

"Couple", 1999, oil/wood, 18"-22".

2010-11-28T19:12:00.000-08:00

My mother Marina Salz (stage name Marina Lord) in a forties publicity photo for Hollywood. This photo was done in the "Bruno of Hollywood" studios in New York.

2010-11-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

"Game Plans", 2008-2010, oil/wood, 25"-28". From the "Narrative Abstractions" series by Marc Salz.

2010-11-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

"The Artist and his Model", 2008-2010, oil/wood, 26"-29.5". I used to like, and still do, Picasso's series on "The Artist and His Model". It's a well worn subject in art history. The fat white shape(right) or the blue skinny shape(left) could be the artist or the model. It's up to you the viewer to decide.

2010-10-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

"Duet", 2009, oil/wood, 23"-22" by Marc Salz. Part of my series of new shaped paintings.

A duet but with an interrupting figure in the middle.

2010-09-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

"Jungle Jim", 2009, oil/wood, 24"-22". These are not so much shaped paintings but are more like annoyed and restless rectangles.

2010-09-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

"Chosen Paths", 2009, oil/wood, 24"-25".

2010-09-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

"Zig Zag"(Zim Zum), 2009, oil/wood, 19"-27".

When paintings are worth the price of music: Sam Salz and Vladimir Horowitz.

2010-09-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up in our home with my father the art dealer Sam Salz, there was a special small room in the back of the house for playing cards. Many of my father's customers would come and play gin rummy or bridge there. Aside from a card table, the room had a small bar while the walls were lined with photos of the actor Edward G. Robinson, the writer Erich Maria Remarque and other personalities my father knew. Two of the visitors and card players that would come there were the virtuoso pianist Vladimir Horowitz and the choreographer George Balanchine. Horowitz wanted to buy two Impressionist paintings from my father but he could not meet my father's asking price. He also had been losing at bridge so my father decided to make a deal with him: Horowitz could give a free concert for my parents at his apartment and he then could buy the paintings for his lower price. Both my father and mother later went to Horowitz's place and he played for them a concert of Ravel and Debussy. Horowitz ended up with the paintings.

2010-09-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

"Earth Tears", 2002, by Marc Salz. oil/wood, 21"-22". One from my series titled the "Talmudic Abstractions". The format of these paintings was based on the Jewish Talmud which consists of a central text of law (Torah) with surrounding visual "commentaries" like the ones made by rabbis and scholars. This series came after my one on triptychs that had an early Renaissance Christian influence in their format. Both can now be seen as paying tribute the Judeo-Christian tradition in art although I wanted to give the Talmud group the same weight and importance as the more historically familiar triptychs.

2010-09-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

"Water, Water", 2001, oil/wood. 21"-22". Dedicated to Romanian Jewish poet Paul Celan who survived the Holocaust but ended his life in water.

2010-09-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

"Trilogy", 1989, oil/wood, 19"-25" by Marc Salz. Between 1987 and 1997, I painted a series of paintings based on the format of the 14th and 15th century Sienese triptychs. These pieces were shown in solo and group shows at the Dolan Maxwell Gallery(1989) and the More Gallery(1991-1995). A few were selected for shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia(1991) and the Chicago International Art Exposition(1989). The final shows of the series were at the Ganser Gallery at Millersville University(1996) and at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia(1997).

2010-09-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

"Shrine", 1989, oil/wood, 21"-25".

2010-09-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

"Wing", 1990, oil/wood, 19"-20".

2010-09-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

"Shock Corridor"(for Sam Fuller), 1995, oil/wood, 27"-33".

2010-09-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

"Before the Fire", 1996, oil/wood, 28"-35".

2010-09-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(nine), 2010, by Marc Salz, watercolor/gouache, 17.5"-14".

2010-09-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(eight), 2010, oil/ragboard, 17"-19.5".

2010-09-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(seven),"Fireballs", 2010, oil/ragboard, 19.5"-17".

2010-07-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

"Deluge"(four), 2010, oil/ragboard, 20"-17".

2010-07-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

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).

2010-07-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-07-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-07-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

"Subterranians", 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.