Art Is Life

Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night

De: Jerry Saltz

Narrado por: Jerry Saltz, Mark Bramhall

From the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author of How to Be an Artist: a deliciously comprehensible survey of the art world in turbulent times.

Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art as few critics have. An early champion of forgotten and overlooked women artists, he has also celebrated the pioneering work of African American, LGBTQ+, and other long-marginalized creators. Sotheby's Institute of Art has called him, simply, “the art critic”.

Now, in Art Is Life, Jerry Saltz draws on two decades of work to offer a real-time survey of contemporary art as a barometer of our times. Chronicling a period punctuated by dramatic turning points—from the cultural reset of 9/11 to the rolling social crises of today—Saltz traces how visionary artists have both documented and challenged the culture. Art Is Life offers Saltz’s eye-opening appraisals of trailblazers like Kara Walker, David Wojnarowicz, Hilma af Klint, and Jasper Johns; provocateurs like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, and Marina Abramović; and visionaries like Jackson Pollock, Bill Traylor, and Willem de Kooning. Saltz celebrates landmarks like the Obama portraits by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, writes searchingly about disturbing moments such as the Ankara gallery assassination, and offers surprising takes on figures from Thomas Kinkade to Kim Kardashian. And he shares stories of his own haunted childhood, his time as a “failed artist”, and his epiphanies upon beholding work by Botticelli, Delacroix, and the cave painters of Niaux.

With his signature blend of candor and conviction, Jerry Saltz argues in Art Is Life for the importance of the fearless artist—reminding us that art is a kind of channeled voice of human experience, a necessary window onto our times. The result is an openhearted and irresistibly enjoyable appraisal by one of our most important cultural observers.

©2022 Jerry Saltz (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The world’s most famous and celebrated contemporary art critic.”—GQ

“One of the most powerful art critics today.”—Time Out

“A critic of the people, bringing art to a broader audience.”—Architectural Digest

Must read

I love the honesty and wit he brings to this book. His detail and expertise brings his experience of art alive.

Saltz did it again!

Is a great book! Made me laugh, learn, think deeply, is great to learn from one of the most popular critics as well as from his artist days! Thank you so much Jerry!

A “Must Listen” for artists and art teachers!

I really enjoyed listening to Jerry talk about ART, his life and the lives of artists.
I laughed. I cried. I learned a lot!
Feeling inspired to get in the studio AND I’m looking forward to sharing some of this information with my painting and art history students.
Thanks Jerry!

Why have i just now discovered…

Jerry Saltz!! What a great storyteller and narrator!
Looking forward to reading more.
Thanks Jerry!!

Criticism as ART

Saltz takes us on a roller coaster tour of galleries, museums, artists studios and experiences - tying cave paintings to modernists and Caravaggio to Johns in a deeply personal, intelligent, and soulful way. He lives and breathes art and translates his devotion to it in an inspired, funny and above all - loving way. I love his voice - as if speaking off the cuff at times. Moving and enlightening.

My Favorite Critic

It’s hard not to be hyperbolic when discussing Jerry Saltz. His knowledge, erudition and empathy for the art he reviews is a beautiful thing. Add to this the moving autobiographical essays (don’t miss My Appetites) and this is a great book. The only downside is that he doesn’t read many of the essays, but be does read the most important ones.

Art doesn't have any boundaries nor definition.

The author wrote an extremely comprehensive book that reflected views and observations that, for the part, I agreed with or learned about new artists.

20 Years of Work

A must read or listen if you love Jerry’s writing. The book itself is a collection of pieces that are grouped by topic and span over 20 years. I appreciated the date being stated at the end of each piece. It makes me nostalgic and yet also excited for what art was, and new movements yet to unfold.

Inspiring and uplifting!

I loved listening to this book (especially the parts where Jerry reads his own writing). I keep going back to listen to some of my favorite chapters again and again: Jasper Johns and William DeKooning. Jerry Saltz second book is open, personal, inspiring and a love letter to art!

I have listened 3 times

…and will return again and again. Jerry is a very smart, humble, savvy, curious, insatiable creature of the art world, and he lets us come with him when he makes his sojourns. I’m grateful.