David Salle

Glass and Mirror Paintings

January 23 - March 6, 1999
540 West 26th Street

Press Release

Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by New York artist David Salle. This will be Salle's first exhibition in New York in four years. A major mid-career retrospective of David Salle's work will open this spring at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and will then travel to the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, the Castello di Rivoli in Turin and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In addition, Walter Hopps is organizing a traveling show to open in the fall of 1999 at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Monterrey, Mexico.

"Glass and Mirror Paintings" will be an exhibition of six new paintings accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with a text by Molly Nesbit. The catalogue will be available in early February. In these paintings, Salle continues an exploration of reflection, disjunction and fragmentation through a mysterious and suggestive juxtaposition of narrative elements. Each painting is an intricate composition of canvas panels, linen panels, both oil and acrylic paints and inset canvases expertly organized with an attention to surface which combines an interest in both figuration and abstraction. Crystal glasswares with random inscriptions are lined up against a horizontal black ground. Panels are stacked side to side with both still lifes and color abstractions painted on grounds of blurry stripes and unfinished patches of color. Lines of color weave a bright plaid but stop before completing their pattern. Small portraits pop up as insets in the larger panels. Circus performers and dancing bears hold themselves mid-performance in precarious moments of balance.

David Salle was born in Norman, Oklahoma in 1952. He received his BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He lives and works in New York.

Artists in this exhibition

• David Salle

Exhibition Works

Schooner, 1998 Oil and acrylic on canvas and linen 79 x 90 inches, 200.7 x 228.6 cm LM1532


To the Hunt, 1998 Oil and acrylic on canvas and linen 79 x 90 inches, 200.66 x 228.6 cm LM1381


Michael Rips, 1998 oil and acrylic on canvas and linen 72 x 144 inches 182.9 x 365.8 cm LM1531


Rips in the Mirror, 1998 oil and acrylic on canvas and linen 72 x 144 inches 182.9 x 365.8 cm LM2920


The 4th, 1998 oil and acrylic on canvas and linen 79 x 90 inches 200.7 x 228.6 cm LM1537


Face in the Glass, 1998 oil and acrylic on canvas and linen 79 x 90 inches 200.7 x 228.6 cm LM1533