Jerry Saltz in Montreal

Jerry Saltz speaking @ Théâtre Outremont April 3 2019
Photo © Lena Ghio, 2019 

FRANÇAIS app de traduction à gauche

Last Wednesday was a cool windy day in Montreal. My friends and I gathered at Théâtre Outremont to assist to the Artspeak presentation of Art First; All Else Follows A talk by Jerry Saltz. We were so excited and everyone in the theatre was smiling in anticipation. I follow Jerry Saltz on Twitter, @jerrysaltz, and I often like his posts or add a reply to them. I always found his comprehension of current events and, although we work in different cities, his assessment of life in the arts spot on. 

He steps on the stage with only highlights of what he wishes to talk about and no prepared text. He then proceeds to talk about art, the art world, artists, dealers, collectors with fluid accuracy, humor and realism. He brings us down to the current facts of what it means to be an artist today. The landscape has changed in such a way that the art world is overflowing with people producing art trying to earn a living and perhaps also dreaming of wealth and glory. The truth is very few will attain the latter so what do you do? He underlined the fact that in Montreal, compared to many big cities in the world,  real estate is comparatively cheap. If the climate continues to become warmer Montreal will still be comfortably cool in comparison to the US.

The most important thing he said was the bottom line about artists: they may never get rich but they are likely to keep doing our art. His recommendations: form gangs of artist to work with into the night and work work work!

LINKS OF INTEREST:

http://artspeaks.ca/en/
Jerry Saltz wins Pulitzer https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/jerry-saltz-new-york-magazine 
Jerry Saltz gets a book deal https://www.vulture.com/2019/03/jerry-saltz-how-to-be-an-artist-book.html
Jerry Saltz 2018 tips for artist https://news.artnet.com/opinion/jerry-saltz-advice-artists-frieze-1279226

How to be an artists by Jerry Saltz 

BIO Jerry Saltz is the senior art critic at New York Magazine and its entertainment site Vulture.com, a leading voice in the art world at large, and an innovative user of social media. He joined the magazine’s staff in 2007, and his writing ranges from cover stories to reviews to quick online commentaries. He won a National Magazine Award for Columns & Commentary in 2015, and was a finalist for the same award in 2011.

Saltz was previously the senior art critic at the Village Voice since 1998, where he was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism (in 2001 and 2006) and was the recipient of the 2007 Frank Jewett Mather Award in Art Criticism from the College Art Association. A frequent guest lecturer at major universities and museums, Saltz was also the sole adviser on the 1995 Whitney Biennial. Saltz has written for Frieze, Modern Painters, Parkett, Art in America, Time Out New York, Flash Art, Arts magazine, and many others. His Village Voice columns were compiled into a book Seeing Out Loud: The Village Voice Art Columns, 1998-2003 (Figures Press). A second volume of his criticism, Seeing Out Louder, was published by Hardpress Editions.  New York Magazine Archives

-LENA GHIO